Article by Natalie Gallant
'3 in the van and the little one said move over’… with paddle boards, mountain bikes and camping gear packed there wasn’t much room left in Jamie’s Bongo for the 3 of us. Christmas Eve we headed south bound for Christchurch to stay the night with the lovely Dave & Meg at her parents home. An impromptu climbing trip to Cattlestop Crag gave us fantastic views over Christchurch and out to the coast. It felt great to get the body moving before more road tripping past the stunning blue of Lake Pukaki and onward into Mt Cook National Park. ​

​Article by Natalie Gallant
I have a NeoAir sleeping pad, fantastic when I fall asleep but the seam has a teeny tiny hole in so 212am on the dot I wake because it’s deflated and then continue to wake every hour thereafter until I can be bothered to re-inflate it. Poor sleep is getting to me, my lack of ability in having any decision making powers was evident the morning after arriving to Taumarunui. I couldn’t figure out what I should do. (Also a clear sign of ‘overtraining’, which fits too with my recent wishes of being a happy recluse!) Do I skip the next 26km gravel road section between Taumarunui and Owhango because my feet are still reeling from their thrashing the day before? Or do I suck it up sunshine and smash out those km’s? Lots of TA hikers skip road sections because of time restrictions and boredom etc. So why do I struggle with contemplating the thought? Taking a day off clearly didn’t factor into my options, I couldn’t see the hedge for the trees obviously!- that saying I’m sure isn’t quite right but I’ll blame the head blanket. Rather than laying in my tent with a suffocated voice of reason I knew I had things to do, so I figured if I can’t make a decision now I’ll do what I gotta do and then see if my coffee grinds speak to me from the bottom of my cup…or tea leaves or something like that. A quick trip to the post office, one long black and 3 free biscuits from the visitor centre and I had a plan! I’d booked a DOC (Department Of Conservation) hut on the Northern Circuit of Tongariro and now that I had my excuse to skip the next road section, I had to get up that Volcano before the bad weather moved in. Just had the 42nd Traverse in between… and I was in no mood for ‘smashing’ that out. .

Article by Natalie Gallant
I’ll come back to the beautiful Timber Trail in a jiffy. What I didn’t mention in my last blog (and I didn’t mention much to be honest - so be prepared this might be a long’un) was that yet again the postman had left me in the lurch. It didn’t take long to see the postman was actually my knight in shining armour. I was cream cracked from blitzing 46km the day prior from Pirongia Forest Park through Waitomo forest and into the back of Te Kuiti, with the last few km of energy sucking steep terrain with ankle breaking dried hoof prints, a far cry from the mud of Pirongia! So, although my body actually felt great my brain I had left somewhere in Waitomo Caves…. in addition the forecast said there’d be 23mm of rain to fall right when I’d be tackling another muddy forest. It was decided, a coffee and cake day.

Article by Natalie Gallant
There has been so many beautiful things enriching my senses in the past few days; sights, sounds, people, that without a doubt it’s been amongst my most favourite of the trail so far. I’m going to tell you about the last few days through photos, but even photos sometimes can’t do justice to what you see in the blink of an eye.

Article by Natalie Gallant
I’m not sure I need to expand too much on the title of this blog when you see the videos and pictures. Absolutely felt like the hardest day I have had so far, both mentally and physically. Forget climbing a mountain, walking through a swamp with head high razor sharp grass is next level, it’s fatiguing, demoralising and I totally lost my way emerging bleeding and frustrated as heck!

​Article by Natalie Gallant
These last few days have felt like I fell down a rabbit hole into a scene from Alice in Wonderland; with giant bunnies, fairies and mad hatters tea parties! Not to forget offerings of sleeping in a manger for the night. The main thing however, after an enforced rest day waiting for the postman, I have new shoes and happy feet! As soon as they arrived, I was off on a boat across the Whangarei Harbour and over to Marsden Point….finally Auckland was creeping closer.

Article by Natalie Gallant
This section of the trail I regrouped with some cool as girls I’d crossed paths with a few times earlier on the trial; baffled by how I’d run past them into the distance yet always seem to jump out the bushes behind them…did you ever hear the tail about the Hare & the Tortoise? Slowing down allowed the time to make some wicked friends, be OK with the fact that tide times would dictate my next few days and by playing tortoise, missing the second tidal crossing meant I would meet the role model kiwi Grandparents and have an afternoon of cake and animal cuddles. Can't really complain at that….But first Tane Moana - the largest remaining Kauri on the east coast of Northland, and what a majestic beast! With a girth of 11 meters and height 28.6 meters, there’s no blowing her down in a storm!
I also noted some strange happenings in the surrounding bush….

Article by Natalie Gallant
​I set sail in the early morning sunshine from Paihia, Bay of Islands to cross the Waikere Inlet and begin a mission deep into the Russell Forest. Kayaking was a nice respite for the feet and surprisingly I felt really strong in my upper body, although the tail wind may of helped my paddle power! ​

Article by Natalie Gallant
I woke the following morning at my friends Mel & Jerome’s and hobbled into their kitchen with what can only be described as a GIANT kankle! It wasn’t painful, it wasn’t red or bruised nor had I grown a 6th toe, it was just BIG! The only thing I could put it down too was a very minor slip going down Raetea in the mud that was the kind of twinge you don’t even wince at nor care to even look down. Maybe it was that followed by another 20km of running with a 10Kg pack on, who knows but it was a big momma! My day mainly involved mulling over Mel & Jerome’s epic tea draw. At least I could entertain myself with thoughts of Mel charging into Puketi forest to help save me from what she thought must of been me attempting to describe a stalker ‘male, black & white, skinny yet well behaved’ - My first text stating that I had found a dog hadn’t gone though at this point…I did wonder afterwards what stalker is described by the stalkee as ‘well-behaved’?! I think Mel missed that bit too in her panic to get to me hehehe.
Friends to the rescue, by the end of the day I’d tubigriped it, taken some meds and had a trip to the black sulphur hot springs of Ngawha. Here you feel like you’ve walked onto the set of the Flintstones, with its caveman looks but its absolutely the best experience. Each pool is named & with different temperatures, as you’ll see below, with some raising to such high temperatures - namely ‘The Doctor’ at 48*C - they have to close for the night!