Palmerston North to Toko Corner (Tararua Range)

28kms

Total 1493kms

Jesse and Josh came over to catch up last night and we talked about how we were going to tackle the next six days. We all have a lot of food to carry so our packs are much heavier than we are used to. I am glad I have these two guys to walk with over the ranges.

Walking out of Palmy today I crossed the Fitzherbert Bridge and followed the walkway around to Bledisloe park and Massey University. The Turitea walkway crosses three footbridges and then open fenced farmland overlooking Massey Sports Institute. The next several kms were entering a valley and the foothills of the Tararua range. The trail went down ‘Green Corridors’ planted by the council that ran adjacent to streams. Then there was 7kms of metal road and the views were changing around every corner, from bush to open farm land and slowly ascending into the hills. I stopped at a nice picnic area for lunch. At the end of the road there was the parking lot and hub for the Kahuterawa recreation area. There are heaps of mountain biking tracks here. The trail takes the ‘back track’ which is an old road that was closed in the 60’s and is now surrounded by regenerated native bush. There were plenty of streams crossing the track so easy to refill the water bottle. The track finished and I entered some forestry land and not far along was the new official campsite. A shelter is being constructed and the builder was there when I arrived. I thought it had already been built and was expecting a water tank and toilet. The builder said they were three months behind schedule. There is a good stream that is easy to access and a portaloo for now. I had a wash in the stream. A lady from the UK called Karina was at the campsite already. Jesse turned up about an hour later and then Josh. Josh took a while to get out of Palmy because he needed to buy some gear that was lost to the Whanganui river.