By Ruth

Distance: 24 km

Today’s walk included two separate DOC trails: the Brynderwyn Walkway and the Mangawhai Cliffs Walkway. In between we walked some roads and through some farm pastures to link up the two trails. This is somewhat emblematic of a lot of the walking we’ve done so far in the Northlands – some gorgeous walking tracks linked together by farms and roads.

The beginning of the day was the road walk. It was a pretty nice road walk because it was gravel (easier on the feet than asphalt) and had some excellent views. The drawback was that today was a sunny warm day, and there was no shade.

Since we are now less than a 2 hours’ drive from Auckland, we are walking through a lot of places that are almost entirely filled with holiday homes (called “baches” in the vernacular). Along the road there were huge parcels of land for sale, to develop your dream bach.

At the end of road we turned onto the Brynderwyn Walkway, a forest trail. It went up and down and up and down along a ridge until the highest point where there is an informal campsite for TA walkers. We stopped there for a big mid-morning snack. While we were sitting at the picnic table, a group of about a dozen older ladies arrived. They were a hiking club from Mangawhai, out for a day hike. They knew all about the TA and were so excited to meet us. They gave us some tips for the rest of the trail to avoid some road walking, and also of places to go out for coffee in Mangawhai.

After we emerged from the forest, we had to walk through quite a bit of farmland. Although lovely, it was now around midday, and there was no shade for hours. I was starting to think we should have stayed at the informal campsite for a nap and continued walking later in the day.

But everything became worthwhile when we reached the Mangawhai Cliffs trail, which was an absolutely stunning walk high above the shoreline. The water here is an incredible colour.

At the end of that trail we got down to the beach and I went for a quick swim. It was so nice.

Tonight we are staying in Mangawhai Heads and tomorrow we are going to walk to the actual village of Mangawhai, only a few kilometres away. So basically tomorrow is a rest day. To take advantage of our relaxed schedule now that we’re here, we went out for dinner (with Stephen) and had pizza and beer.