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?