Day 1 - Twilight Beach

Today I finally started the hike I’ve been planning for the past 6 odd months. The start of, hopefully, a long journey.

To get to the top of the North Island I took a bus from Auckland to the far North town of Kaitaia. At the kaitaia bus stop the locals honked and waved at us, they must be aware of what we’re setting out to do. Originally I planned to hitch hike the last 2hrs, but it was getting late to hitch. So a group of hikers I met on the bus decided to pay the ungodly fee of 90NZD to get to the Cape that evening. That is after I quickly bought a new iPhone cable that I just forgot on the bus that just left…

In typical New Zealand fashion it was raining when we arrived to start. But not letting the rain dampen our spirits we took our pictures at the Cape and start down the winding path. 13km, staring at 6:15. 

                                                                                      

Elco (Belgium), Lindy and Chris (Aussies), and myself. 

This first section was a mix of beach and rocky outcrops with no tree. A scenery very reminiscent of my section hike in Algarve, Portugal. 

But as expected, but refusing to admit to ourselves, the sun began to set, we left too late. Slowly light began to fade until we were walking in the dark. Fortunately, with only 4km on a nice beach it was easy walking in the dim light. We reached our camp, the appropriately named Twilight Beach, around 9. A hastily set up camp and a quick dinner then off to bed all the while being slaughtered by the Sandflies. 

All in all an excellent start to the trail.