Hunua Ranges and new WWOOFplace!

After hiking in het Waitakere Ranges I was up for something new. I found a book in the library @ FatCat about all the Ranges which surrounded Auckland and it was clear to me that the Hunua Ranges would be the next place to discover. Leon and Matthias, 2 stoned German guys from the hostel, wanted to come with me, but because they had to work, they would come a day later. On a thursdaymorning I left the hostel with once more my full gear with me, up for the final test before Te Araroa. I went grocerieshopping in the Countdown and took a train from Henderson back into the city. Overthere, @ Britomart(the central station of Auckland) I changed trains to Papakura, 50 mins south of Auckland by train. From there I started walking towards Hunua, a 15km walk, with my thumb raised up. But there was not one car who stopped for me and I can understand that when you walk with your back towards the cars. But I didn't really wanted to have a hitch, it would have been nice to get one, but I really enjoyed the walk. Getting out of Papakura and reaching the mountains was cool. It went up from the beginning and before long I was sweating. It was a very sunny day and it was good that I had brought my sunny, cowboyish hat, because otherwise, for sure I would have burned. Halfway I met a woman down the road who started chatting up to me. If I was going to the Ranges and if I knew that it was still some 6ks to go. She gave me something to drink and we talked a bit about her all day doings and what I was doing overhere. It was a nice break, but as she had said, I still had some way to go, so I moved on quickly after my lemonade. I reached Hunua around 3 in the afternoon, but it was still an hour before I would set my hot and tired foot in the pool of the waterfall. That was so nice, arriving at a beautiful waterfall and just relaxing with your feet in the cold water. I was quite tired, but I didn't know where to sleep yet, so I had to be on my way again, see if I could make it to the nearest campground. This was idle hope, because that was another 12 kms away and I only had 2,5 hours left of sunshine. Still, I went on the track to find a spot somewhere on the track, but @ 5.30pm I realised that it was not gonna happen. I made myself dinner on a lookoutpoint, what was really nice and soon afterwards it got dark on the track. Very well Jasper, you just broke rule nr. 1; NO NIGHTHIKING ON YOUR OWN! I decided to go back to the waterfall, because there was a lot of free grass space. It was dark now as well, so nobody should see me overthere. It took me an hour in the dark I guess to get back and as I had expected, it was deserted and dark as hell. I set up my tent only 20mtrs away from the waterfall and soon I was in dreamland, thanks to the rhytmic sounds of water splashing on water.
The next day I woke up early, so nobody would see me in the light, but there was no need for haste. Nobody was to be seen for the next 1,5 hour, so that was good. While pitching down my tent I soon realised that something was amiss with my leg. My hip and my achilles were hurting a lot and there was only one explanation for that; I went to far yesterday. I tried with stretching and moving to get it loose, but it wasn't much help. After my breakfast I just shut off the pain and went on; I had to reach the next campground and figure out where I would meet Leon and Matthias. Soon after I set off it started raining and for the rest of the day it stayed like that. When I reached a mountainridge I discovered by the sound of my phone that I had reception, which I hadn't had since I entered the ranges, and I made a call to Matthias, informing him to come to the Mangatawhiri Campground. They would be able to enter the Ranges from the north and from there follow the road south and they would eventually come up to the campground. I had lunch at a different campground, where I had a bit of shelter. There was also the framework of 4 bedbunks in the little, open hut and on the walls I could read a lot of notes from people who had passed by while walking the Te Araroa. That was really nice to read.
I stopped at a couple of viewingpoints this day, but because the weather was so shitty, there was not much to look out on to. I was surrounded by clouds and yes, that also has it's beauty. Around 3pm I reached the campground and there was just one car with a caravan on the field. It was a very big campingground, laying in a valley, surrounded by mountains. A very beautiful place to pitch up your tent, even when it's raining. After I had sorted out my tent and everything, I walked up to the caravan. A man and a woman were enjoying the peacefulness of the place, escape the city for the weekend. They invited me to come over in the evening if I wanted to play a boardgame or drink a cup of coffee, if my friends wouldn't make it to the campground. That was nice of them and so we sat in the evening, after I had my rice dinner, in their caravan with a cup of hot chocolate and listening to stories from one another, while the rain was banging on the roof. My friends didn't make it that evening and I had no idea where they were. In the valley I had no reception, as is usual over here in the Ranges.
The next morning I woke up with my leg hurting even more, but does Jasper listen to his body? Of course not! Really stupid, I thought it was okay and that I just had to 'walk it out' of my leg. I had a cold bath in the stream and that was a hell of a wake up, lovely. I already had made up my mind the day before that I wanted to do a loop walk around the dam reservoir, what was laying in the valley, and so it was that I went on my way around 8.30am. But when I entered the track I felt my leg throbbing and thought: Shit, that's not good. But did I go back and listened good to what my body was telling me? Of course not! I just shut off the pain and went on the muddy, boggy track. It had rained so much and the track was very slippery, but it was so beautiful. I had to cross some streams wherein I had to go kneedeep and that was a good practice, because that's going to happen a lot on the Te Araroa trail. On the first mountaintop I called back to the hostel and got Paul on the phone. I asked him about Leon and Matthias and he started laughing straight away, because they were back at the hostel. They had walked for six hours in the rain, trying to find me, but without a map. They had no map, the idiots! Haha, they had slept in their car that night and came back in the morning to the hostel, wet and tired. So, I moved on and stood on a couple more mountaintops, looking out over the valley and it's reservoirs; it was beautiful. The sun was shining again and it was absolutely beautiful. I made my way back to the campground and my leg was really hurting now a lot and I had made myself promise to myself to hitch a ride back out of the Ranges and find my way home to the community. I was going to ask the caravanpeople for a ride, but they were gone when I came back to the campground. But there were a lot of cars on the parkinglot, which all belonged to mountainbikers. After half an hour it was bingo, I managed to get a hitch back from 2 woman. Packed my backpack ASAP and joined there little group, because they had been mountainbiking in a group of 6 woman. Their was one 'campmother', as he was calling himself, and he was drinking beer and putting sausages on the BBQ. They gave me some food and we had some talk about where I came from and what I was doing over here. After a nice ride in a big Chevrolet 4X4, they dropped me off at Papakura and from there I took the same way back as I had done 3 days before. It was beautiful, being in the Hunua Ranges, but I had gone to far in case of my leg. While writing this, my leg is a lot better. I took good rest back at Fat Cat and I only feel a bit pain in my upper thigh. Also a nice detail of the story was the fact that when we retraced where Leon and Matthias had been walking, we figured out that they had actually passed the campground TWICE! It was very dark though and they only had one light, but still... Unbelievable, hahaha.
So, this will be my last story written here in Sunnyvale(for now). I'm leaving tomorrow to go up north, WWOOFing for a week. I'm gonna do some wood chopping and road maintenance, somewhere close to Kerikeri. The host of the farm will pick me up there and then it's 40mins back to her place. The 1st of October, Kate and I will start Te Araroa and I'm ready for it. I'm so looking forward to it, can't wait!