Mar 105 min
Updated: 4 days ago
Total Days: 50
Days on Trail : 47
Rest Days: 1
Travel days: 2 (Day 1 & Day 50)
🗓️Start date: 1st November 2023 from Cape Reinga/ Te Rerenga Wairua
🗓️End date: 19th December 2023 at Wellington.
North Island: 1,700km / 1,056 miles
Methods of travel: Walk, Bike, Canoe, Car, Boat, Cable Car
🥾Walked: 40 days / 1,068km / 664 miles
Average daily km: 26.7 km / 16.7 miles
⏰Earliest start time: 6am (Day 22)
⏰Latest start time: 11.20am - waiting for water taxi - day 14
⏰Earliest end time: 12.40pm - the last day of the canoe - day 38
⏰Latest end time: 8.40pm (Day 20) - I was wild camping, so needed to wait until it was dark to set up my tent.
🦶Longest time on feet: 12hrs 30 mins - day 27 / 21.4km / Pirongia to Waitomo - very badly overgrown, slow going.
Shortest day: day 44 - hitch to Levin - then a short walk to the accommodation. 5.9km / 2hr 10 mins - also stopped to do a food shop
🛶Canoe: Whanganui River - 5 days / 168km / 105 miles / $300
🚴♀️Bike: Timber Trail - 2 days / 90km / 56 miles / $135
🚗Hitching: 374km / 232 miles / no of hitches 32
Most hitches in a day: 3 (day 1 and day 31)
Longest Hitch: Levin - Waikanae (74km / 46 miles) (Missed the Tararua Ranges - due to bad weather)
Other transportation:
🚎Buses: 3 (travel to the start & travel from the finish) $45
⛴️Boat rides: Ferry 2 / water taxi 1 $36
🚠Cable Car: 1 Wellington $6.50
💵Total Transport Costs: $522 / £256
Accommodation:
⛺️Night in my tent: 34 / 68%
🛏️Nights with a roof over my head: 16 / 34%
Breakdown:
🏕️Free Camping: 18
⛺️Paid Camping: 16
🏚️Cabin/hut: 4
🛌Hostel: 3
⛪️Mattress floor of church: 2
💨Air mattress: 2
🛏️Bedroom in house: 2
🛏️Bed in a garage: 2
🛏️Eco Lodge: 1
💵Most expensive accommodation: Eco Lodge $222 (did include pizza on arrival, dinner, breakfast & lunch)
😇Most expensive trail angel $50 (included being picked up, dropped off, shower & dinner)
💰🏕️Most expensive camping $40
💰⛺️Cheapest camping $8
Best value for money: Trail Angel 😇- Jo’s Funny Farm. Day 25 $30 (the price included an amazing dinner & breakfast, bed in a garage & hot shower).
💷💵Total Accommodation Costs: £485 / $990
💷💵Average Accommodation Costs: £9.70 / $19.80
Random…
🍾Bottles of wine drank: 4 (most expensive $44)
Gear destroyed/broken: 2 pairs inov8 socks, 1 water bladder, 1x inov8 trainers, 1x pink hat, sunglasses.
No of items lost: 0
Gifted gear: 🎒Osprey backpack EJA 48L, all Inov8 gear: 2x socks, shoes, black short shorts, pink hoody, pink waterproof jacket, gloves.
👟Trainers: Inov8 RocFly G350 - Cushioned hiking shoes. Designed for thru-hiking & multiple long days on the trail £150. World’s first hiking shoe with Graphene foam. The highly-breathable, quick-drying knitted upper delivers excellent comfort, protection and long-lasting durability as the big miles stack up. They were new for the start of this walk.
📡📲Communication Device: ZOLEO - connects with your phone to provide seamless global messaging that follows you in and out of mobile network coverage
Apps used on the trail: Te Ararora App, Te Ararora Notes & maps App, Google Maps, Booking.com, Airalo (e-sim card), Zoleo App
Other Costs:
💰Total Food Resupply: £736 / $1503
Average daily food cost £15 / $30
Most expensive Food Shop: £192 / $392 - this was for 5 days hiking & 5 day canoe trip, plus 2 extra days worth of food in case of bad weather. (12 days worth)
No of no spend days: 14
💰Miscellaneous Costs: e-sim cards & data top up, new water bladder, painkillers, suncream, anti-septic cream.
Total: $169 / £83
Total Costs*: £1,560 / $3,184
💷 Average costs per day: £31 / $64
*This doesn’t include my international flight costs, travel insurance, and travel/accommodation before & after finishing the North Island - I’ll include these costs in my total stats post as it’s too hard to separate it out for each island.
Subjective feeling out of 10 on:
😀Total Enjoyment: 312/480 = 65% Enjoyment - seems about right! Maybe a little high!!
😫Total Fatigue average: 238/480 = 50% - tired - which did surprise me a little. Maybe I was more tired going into this trail than I thought I was.
⛰️Total Ease of terrain: 281/480 = 59% of the trail was hard/challenging. This will be the roads, concrete paths, gravel paths, cycle ways. Plus many parts of the trail were overgrown and in a bad state, coupled with lack of signage
Challenges: The TA Website says it is- is a continuous 3,000 km walking track from Cape Reinga to Bluff. This is not correct.
IT IS NOT a continuous walking track!!!
There are breaks, road detours, bike tours, canoe tours, ferry links, water taxi links, roads links, State Highway links.
📌This is not your typical wilderness thru hike.
🛣️The biggest challenge for me was the roads, they were just brutal on your feet and your soul.
Least enjoyable days: (below 5 out of 10 on my enjoyment rating system)
Day 6 - The Northland Forest - first serious exposure to the mud and lack of signage.
Day 7 - road walking, plus my left ankle is causing me pain
Day 12 - Road walking & waiting to cross the estuary, left ankle still causing me pain
Day 22 - fell in a swamp, fields of cows, being wet, thighs rubbing together
Day 36 - cold and wet - canoeing, fell in the water 3x
Day 46 - horrendous weather - rained all day - cold and wet
I don’t mind challenging walking, but when 80% of your day is miserable, it’s just not fun anymore. I don’t want to spend the majority of my time, on dangerous roads, with cars and lorries going past at ridiculous speeds.
Logistics were also more challenging than I expected. In terms of planning estuary/river crossings. Finding places to stay and getting around the detours.
✨Highlights: Timber Trail, Tongariro Alpine Crossing, Colonial Knob Walkway (before Wellington).
*I will be doing a separate post with the stats from the South Island, and I will also be doing a post with the TOTAL stats from both islands
🎤I will also be recording a Tough Girl Podcast solo episode where I will share in more detail my experience from the hike. Plus I will be answering questions from my community the Tough Girl Tribe and people who followed along with the journey on Instagram. This will be live 12th March 2024.
💬Any thoughts or comments about the stats? Anything you’d like me to consider keeping track of for future hikes?
Check out my Planning and Preparation episode now!
Click HERE if you can't see the link below
Check out my Reflections and Learnings from the Te Araroa Trail episode now!
Click HERE if you can't see the link below
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