This trip took in a new track made especially as part of the Te Araroa Walkway that will eventually extend from Cape Reinga to Bluff. The 18km riverside track from Meremere to Rangiriri was opened in December 2000 by Sir Edmund Hillary. Te Araroa will eventually take in existing walkways such as Auckland’s Coast to Coast Walkway and the Okura Walkway as well as proposed purpose-built tracks such as one from Totara Park to the Hunua Ranges. 17 trampers took this opportunity to see this piece of Te Araroa. We left cars at both ends of the walkway, then at 9:50am we set out from the end of Dragway Rd in Meremere near the drag racing track, following a stopbank close to the true right bank of Waikato River. As the track was on farm land, we had to negotiate electric fences and herds of cows at times, but it was a lovely walk on a semi-sunny and not-so-windy morning. Later the track followed the bank of the river itself, and about 11am we stopped for morning tea in an open glade before climbing over a headland to once again follow the river upstream.

It would be very difficult on such a serene day to think that, back in 1863, there was much bloodshed as British troops tried to fight their way through the area to claim the Waikato - the Maoris managed to hold the British soldiers at bay for three months before the British boosted their forces and pushed their way through. The Maori land wars was the only time New Zealand experienced war on its territory (other than tribal battles in pre-European times), even though in both World Wars New Zealand was in a state of war and set up defences that never had to be used, and conscripted the majority of all able-bodied men to either defend the country or fight overseas. There were a few more headlands to go over before we came out onto Churchill East Rd and stop for lunch beside a pumping station that took water out of the Waikato River to irrigate surrounding farm land. This was just over halfway along the walkway. Afterwards we followed the track along the stopbank running alongside the gravel Churchill East Rd - the walkway followed this road all the way through to the finish at Rangiriri beside the bridge over the river. There were signs warning of the possibility of bulls on the track, but we only saw a few cows this time. The walkway was on the stopbank most of the way, except for a 2.5km stretch where we had to roadbash. About half an hour before the end of the track we stopped for another break, and we were finished about 3pm. We all stopped for our mandatory ice cream stop at Pokeno, then one car load of five people went on to Miranda hot pools for a relaxing swim followed by the famous fish and chips at Kaiaua. COST: $10 ($13 for the carload going to Miranda, + $7 hot pools)