158 Km / 98 Miles
I didn’t leave my Warmshowers place till about 8.30. I caught my hosts just before 8 when they headed off to work and I stayed back and had breakfast, wrote in their visitors book and got my tent and bags packed up. Today wasn’t a long ride and the weather was looking a lot better than the previous day, I was hoping to get to the Coromandel Ranges, set up camp and then head up to the Pinnacle!
My first stop of the morning was in Thames, and restocking on snacks for the ride and the hike. Thames is the biggest town in the Coromandel and was built originally during a Gold Rush and towards the end of the 19th century, Thames was the largest centre of population in New Zealand. The ride only took 2.5 hours, and was pretty easy. There was a slight uphill towards the end, but I was full of energy and it was still the morning so I was riding good!
I got to the visitors centre around midday, sorted a campsite and spoke to the lady about the hike. she told me it was going to take me 5-7 hours round trip plus the ride to the trail head which was another 10km on a very lose gravel road! After showing her the wheels on my bike she recommended me hitching a ride to the trailhead as the road really wasn’t suitable for my bike, but it being midday, and everyone who was doing the trail today was most likely already on it I doubted there being much traffic, so I went and dumped my gear in the bushes at the campsite and cycled the 10km gravel road. I was glad to have dumped my stuff as my bike would definitely not have made it down this road loaded up! I couldn’t imagine this road was doing any good for my bike, and i was able to get any sort of good speed. It took me an hour to get to the trail head. It was just after 1pm, and with the thought of “5-7 hours round trip” in my head I was anxious to hit the trail! I didn’t want to be hiking down in the dark of biking back on this horrendous road in the dark. The campground I was staying at was Shag Creek.
Pinnacle Hike – 15 km round trip
“The Pinnacles Walk follows the original steps constructed for packhorses which carried supplies for kauri loggers, gum diggers and gold miners who plundered the area in the early 1900’s.”
The hike was almost entirely uphill without much flat or down to rest the legs. I powered up for the first couple of hours, conscious of the time. I was making great time and was easily 3/4 of the way there. The trail traversed through groves of Nikau Palms, huge Rata trees, and across streams and swing bridges. The trail was well maintained and was obviously well used – It was named one of the best overnight hikes in New Zealand. With a DoC hut right at the base of the final push to the pinnacles that slept 80 people, it was clearly a popular trail that attracted a lot of visitors and the trail was kept maintained by the DoC.
After a couple of hours my legs were really starting to feel the uphill. I was getting tired from the biking this morning and then the hike. I was pushing myself pretty hard to get up the mountain and I was almost regretting pushing too hard already as I was starting to struggle. By the time I got to the hut I knew I had 15-20 minutes left to get to the summit. I was out of water, and even though I knew the hut would have some sort of water source I had no water tablets to purify the water. I knew it would be tank/rain water, but at this point I had got through 2litres of water already and the heat wasn’t holding off. So tank water it was – and hoping and praying that wasn’t going to end in a weird stomach! Ready to hike the last little bit, the view was already amazing so I was excited to get to the top!
10 minutes later I hit some big rocks and some ladders/steps. I was about to climb the final few metres. At this point I was exhausted. I was definitely suffering from the warm weather, and lack of water and sunscreen! I had pushed pretty hard to get to the top in good timing and I wasn’t feeling too hot. After a quick break before the ladders I knew I needed to hurry up and get to the top so I could make my way down. I was getting a migraine and it was only going to get worse.
A little climb later, I’m at the summit. And WOW, what a view!! It was like being in Tasmania all over again. I was on a mountain top and I was happy, despite my banging head!! The view of the Kauaeranga Valley was amazing! – It was a small little platform up the top, and there were a few others just up on the rocks behind. So like them I climbed over and went up the rocks to get to the highest point. The people up there were playing music super loud – one of my pet hate HATES!! on a hike are people blasting music! And the guys at the top were very obnoxious (a German, Australian and a Brit – no surprise the Brit was the most obnoxious of the group) haha! I snapped some photos, drank a ton of water and started a slow climb down. I couldn’t stay at the top as long as I wanted because I was now on a different timer – a timer of my head exploding and shutting down!
I made it down in 2 hours – taking the same trail down (Webb Creek Walk). I wanted to take the Billygoat trail down to make it a loop trail, but If I figured off with how I was feeling that I should just take the trail down that I knew, save possibly messing up or going off trail. Learning from past mistakes for sure! I got to the bottom around 6pm and then had the 1 hour bike ride down the gravel road back to the campground. I think my headache had started from the bike here before the hike, as the gravel road was so bumpy and my head was rattling! The ride back definitely wasn’t fun, but I made it back before sun set, filled up my water bottles from the stream (adding water tablets this time) I set up my tent quick, and made some soup for dinner as I couldn’t stomach much else. And then by 8pm i was laying in my tent ready to pass out. I was tired and feeling terrible. I needed some sleep! The campground was nice and quiet other than the crickets! Tomorrow I’ll head up the coast and through the Coromandel 🙂
“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open”