By the numbers
18,174 steps
13.74 kms
After falling asleep several times while having a chat about photos the night before I hit the sack as I was zonked out. I did wake up in the early hours, although it was a different time back in Australia so that would be a bit weird if I tried getting up. I actually rolled over and went to sleep again, not waking up until 9am. I didn’t really have a plan for the day other than trying to take it easy.
Once I got ready to go as I had a bag with me for water even though it is basically still winter here in New Zealand. The only thing I didn’t have for my aimless wanderings was something like a muesli bar with me. I had a jumper with me as I wasn’t sure what the weather was going to do even though it did look cloudy. My plan was to walk to Whangarei Falls and into Whangarei on a Sunday. I had done this walk a few times and thought it would be good to get some walking in. Out I went towards the waterfall until I seen a walking trail decided it would be good to follow it as I was wondering if this was another way into Kamo an area near where I am staying. Along the way I ended up with my jumper around my waist as it had gotten pretty warm. I followed the river that runs into the Whangarei waterfall as it winds its way along the back of farmland with horses. I soon came to a road that was called Vinegar Hill Road, which actually goes out to Kauri, which is another little town in the area. There are books in the local art gallery on the history of these specific areas that I do have a look for whenever I visit Whangarei. I don’t think I seen this track when I was last in Whangarei, but you never know. There was a sign down one end saying that there were a strand of trees planted in 2019, and what looked to be a new housing development near Vinegar Hill Road.
I turned around and walked back to the waterfall, where I was debating where I wanted to walk to. I thought I had the time so I headed towards AH Reed Park and another waterfall by the name of Paranui Falls. I had not been up that way for a number of years so I thought it would be nice and then don’t need to visit the township itself. I also thought that I had left on my walk late enough that any shops I wanted to have a look at being a Sunday would be closed by the time I made my way there. There were a few people walking along the trails that I could see and some running as well. I could feel the burn as I walked uphill on several parts to reach the waterfall lookout. The area was known as the AH Reed Memorial Kauri Park, which is named after the author AH Reed who lived in the area. He was a great walker and writer about his travels. I had last been to the Paranui falls around the early 2010s and I couldn’t remember if there had been a set of stairs constructed up that area at the time. This was also where the local Kauri trees are located, which were once sought after by the timber millers back in the day. There was a chill in the air as I decided to make my way back home. I was starting to get hungry too. I was more worried about the weather changing for the worst as I didn’t want to get caught in the rain.
I was happy to have a short day especially as I was starting to feel the walk as I knew I needed to get some walking in on my trip away. I ended up at the local dairy convenience store looking at pies and decided to get some chips instead with a drink. There were no sandwiches, so that wasn’t a real problem. When I returned to the house we were going to visit the local supermarket and off we went after a little bit of a rest. We soon found that we had forgotten something once we had entered and that was a mask. Between Australia and New Zealand I have no idea what the rules are, but there were still people without wandering around so it wasn’t being enforced. I was looking at some of the prices and some ham that I thought it was $2 a kilo, but it was per 200 grams. They are good at catching you out. There was Bluebird brand chips, but I couldn’t see Smiths over here. Brands that I would recognise did not seem to be in New Zealand. By the timer we went shopping and returned it was kind of late in the day and it was starting to cool down a bit.
I should say this could be just a slow day and needed to take it easy before the days picked up where we would be doing heaps of stuff. We were making plans for what we wanted to do like some of the local walking trails, although one does take 3 hours one way to walk and being winter might not be a good idea. On talk about going to KerriKerri, I thought I heard there was a carrot museum there, but it was a Parrot museum with 300 parrots. That is over the next couple of days, so you never know what we might come across.
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