Location: Kaimai Ranges
Author: Aaron Jackson and Natalie Fromont
Participants: Runners: Aaron Jackson, Sean Thompson, Sean Mullins, Olivia Pugh, Will Griffiths
Support Crew: Janelle Evans, Miles Nicholson, Zoe Chambers, Natalie Fromont
Date: 18th - 19th January, 2025
Runners' Perspective:
Our adventure started early on a Saturday morning, gathered on the street outside Janelle’s flat in the half-light, waiting for the last few stragglers (me) to arrive. The goal was ambitious, to say the least; our running team was aiming to make it all the way up the Kaimai range, from south to north, over the course of two days. This would see us cover approximately 82km (allegedly – the actual distance turned out to be longer) over the course of two days. The valiant “pack mules” (I can only hope that they don’t object to the label) had an equally ambitious task: to carry everyone else’s stuff. However, there was another goal for this trip, perhaps the most ambitious of them all: for Will, the captain of the Auckland University Tramping Club, to run a successful trip.
Having driven down to an unmarked trailhead on the side of the SH29 and breakfasted on mediocre petrol station sausage rolls, the runners prepared to begin. A photo was taken, last minute adjustments made, Strava started (otherwise it didn’t happen) and off we went. At this point I feel obliged to enlighten the reader about an important peculiarity of trail running: the name trail running is, in most cases, misleading. What actually occurs is walking, then plodding, and eventually staggering, interspersed with occasional bursts of running when the trail allows it. If one maintains an average speed faster than what could be achieved by walking an equivalent distance on a road, they are probably cheating in an effort to get more “kudos” on Strava. Holding true to this unwritten rule, we started walking almost immediately. The trail was generally good, and we were able to run large sections of it. The only real downside was that my attempt at carb-loading by eating 15 Weetbix the night before had the unfortunate side effect of “fibre-loading” me; there are now several very well fertilised trees in the southern Kaimai ranges. In all other respects, however, things were going swimmingly. Unfortunately, this was not to last…
According to Will’s original plan, we were supposed to travel approximately 44km on our first day. However, as we began the climb up towards the rugged spine of the range, it became progressively more obvious that our original estimate of distance was a little optimistic. Strava ticked over to 40km, and there was still a long way to go. The pace slowed, the sun dropped, the trail became more and more rugged and dreams of watching the sunset with shoes off and a hot meal faded away. We plodded on, weighing up which of the Seans would make a better meal – fortunately Sean T. had packed some extra junk food, a much tastier and more straightforward option. At one point, while walking along a grassy ridge, we realised we hadn’t seen a track marker for a while. Crashing through the bushes and tripping over supplejack in the half-light, searching for a trail, there was a mixture of laughter at the absurdity at our self-inflicted suffering and grim determination to get to the hut. We found the trail and kept moving, stumbling over tree roots as the light grew ever dimmer. At about 10pm, as we were plodding along in the light of headtorches, the rousing strains of Gloria Gaynor’s classic 1978 anthem “I will survive” began to drift through the trees, propelled by Will’s struggling phone speakers. This was followed by a surreal selection of music, including Saharan blues, yodelling and opera. It may be my imagination, but I think the pace increased markedly when Sean T. started to play his yodelling music – perhaps yodelling just happens to be the perfect music for walking, but I suspect it had more to do with Olivia trying to get as far away from it as possible. Eventually, at about 11pm after 55km and approximately 15 hours on our feet, we reached Te Rereatukahia hut, utterly exhausted. We were greeted by the walking team, ate some food, and stumbled into bed.
The next morning, Will and I decided we would have a go at running the rest of the North-south track, and the rest of the running team chose the more sensible and far more enjoyable option of joining the walking team on a shorter route out. As we hobbled out of the hut, eventually breaking into a run once our reluctant legs warmed up enough, I found myself wondering why I was doing this voluntarily. It would be difficult to call it “enjoyable” according to any reasonable interpretation of the word. Perhaps it was a drive to test myself, to push my limits? The pursuit of a runner’s high? Masochism? A manifestation of the deep-seated human desire for novelty, adventure and challenge? For the kudos on Strava? I gave up philosophising and settled on the classic answer: “because it was there”. We kept running, walking, tripping and traipsing for about 35 km, up and down hills, over ridges, alongside picturesque rivers and through dense bush. At one point, we passed a family with very young children walking the Waitawheta track. The parents looked utterly exhausted, and it crossed my mind that their adventure had probably been far more difficult than ours. Eventually we made it through the final stretch of trail and reached SH2 and collapsed onto the warm grass.
Now reconnected with our support crew, we enjoyed an excellent watermelon and a swim in the river to wash our foul-smelling bodies. At last, with aching bodies, vicious chafing and the pungent aroma of sweaty socks wafting up from the boot of the car, we made our way to the grease traps of Paeroa for a deep-fried feast, eaten in a local park in the golden light of the setting sun.
Supporters' Perspective:
Support crews are the backbone of large ambitious excursions, making things possible and earning the respect of the excursionists. So we were surprised to discover that Sean T had decided to burden us with a large bottle of kupe mayonnaise. (Thank you to Janelle for hauling it).
9:30 am:
On our way to the start of our track, Janelle and I were too busy chatting to realise we’d missed a turn until it was too late. Making use of our mistake we headed to the shops to buy an extra avocado, onion and watermelon. After also missing our last turn onto the road end we finally made it to Miles and Zoe who had been waiting patiently for our arrival. After balancing all the extra gear on ourselves, feeling like Everest sherpas, we set off.
11:00 am:
The 3 hour walk up to the hut was wonderfully smooth and pleasurable. The sun was shining, there was a welcome breeze along the ridge. Our frequent breaks and extended conversations about important subjects, (such as chocolate and coffee) were excused by the becoming favourite phrase of the weekend: “we’ve got all day!”.
2:45 pm:
Arriving at the hut from our exhausting (not) journey I found myself sunburnt with bruised collar bones. Minor inconveniences that required a long nap in the gorgeous sun. I was joined by Janelle and Zoe, while Miles opted to better his literacy skills and read.
4:00 pm:
Still waiting for our runners to show up we moved our naps indoors.
6:00 pm:
Cards and friendly banter helped to ease our growing nerves for the runners. They were sending updates on their locations, and extending their ETA consistently.
8:30 pm:
Deciding to go ahead and make dinner without them, I realised Will had taken the cheese for his lunch - a crucial component to nachos. We waited a bit more.
9:00 pm:
I caved. Cheeseless nachos for dinner.
9:30 pm:
The crazies began to creep in and we enjoyed some cringe icebreakers by candlelight. The candle wax kept igniting, and worried about burning the hut down we settled for torch light instead.
10:00 pm:
Bedtime.
11:30 am:
We hear voices. People outside. Could it be? Yes! The defeated looking runners finally turned up! As pack mules we’d decided to banish runners to the bottom bunk on account of the smell. One pot of leftover nachos (with cheese this time) and other dinners later, they crawled into sleeping bags and laid awake listening to the snores of a hunter rattling the bunks.
7:00 am:
Will is awake and not being quiet. The two remaining runners set off and the rest of us slowly roll out of bed. “We’ve got all day”.
10:00 am:
The added 3 people made our job of hauling luggage down the hill much easier. Loading everyone up, we took a photoshoot with Melony (the aforementioned watermelon which didn’t even get consumed) and walked.
10:45 am:
Apparently we were all sleepy from our napping yesterday and decided to have a lay down in a grassy clearing for 30 minutes.
1:30 pm:
Arrived back at the cars! After two failed ice cream missions we headed to Karangehape gorge to pick up Will and Aaron. Melony was finally consumed and we enjoyed a well deserved swim in the river.
The end!
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