We had lunch at Pandora Beach, and then the afternoon hiking got much harder - tramping up and down ridgelines with our heavy backpacks until reaching our campsite for the first night at Tapotupotu Bay. We had great views in all directions, from Spirits Bay back in the distance, ahead to Cape Reinga and Cape Maria van Dieman, and across to the sand dunes on the west coast. You can see Spirits Bay behind us:
In the next 2 pictures you can see a light green trail along the ridgeline - that is the track, heading off into the distance! 
We were getting pretty tired, but seeing this view of Tapotupotu Bay (campsite for 1st night) spurred us on:
This was a DOC campsite, and it also had road access so most people had just set up camp for the whole long weekend, complete with bbqs, coolers of beer, fishing gear, and everything else needed for luxury camping. We were a little jealous! But Eric did manage to fish for about an hour (although no luck as we couldn't really carry live bait with us and the fake plastic fish weren't attracting the snappers). Then we had a nice dinner of pre made spaghetti with meat sauce, while looking out over the bay - couldn't beat the view!
It was a crystal clear night and the stars were amazing - more stars than I have ever seen in my life. But that also meant we were freezing - at one point I checked a thermometer I have on my bag and it was 45 degrees in the tent - brrr! I was wearing all of my warm layers, plus my raincoat, and my wool hat, with the sleeping bag completely pulled up over my head. The next morning we lazed around and had a bit of a late start, finally starting our hike out around 10am. More ups and downs, tramping along ridgelines and down to Sandy Bay, then straight up to Cape Reinga. Beautiful views of the coastline - sheer slopes, jagged rocks, turquoise blue water.Here's a view looking back at the campsite:
For the most part, we had the trails to ourselves. There was one other guy going the same way as us, we passed 2 people going the other way on the trail, but other than that we saw almost noone hiking. We made it to the Cape Reinga lighthouse around lunchtime, our last stop with bathrooms and running water before the end of the trail. Also TONS of tourists and tour buses.Us just as we reached Cape Reinga:
After a brief rain shower (good timing on being at the Cape Reinga facilities), we moved on and started the descent down to Te Werahi Beach and Cape Maria Van Dieman. This is a huge stretch of beach with perfect waves rolling in - ideal picture taking spot.
Once we got down to the bottom, we clambered over about 100m of rocks along the shoreline (you can see the rocks in the lower left corner of the above picture, between the grassy slope and the water), including a few tricky spots as the tide was starting to come in. Then it was nice and easy walking along the beach. This is what I had imagined when we decided to do the Coastal Track, not the up and down we have experienced so far! We spent a bit of time relaxing on the beach, eating lunch, and resting our tired feet.At the far end of the beach, we crossed a small stream and that is where our problems began. The map/track descriptions/signage were not very clear about which of the 3 trails we were supposed to follow to our campsite for the night (and at this pt it was sunny and hot, and we were getting a bit tired and cranky, haha). Unfortunately we picked the wrong trail (actually as we later realized, not EVEN a trail, although it was matted down by many feet before ours and there were lots of footprints to follow in the sand). We plowed along for about 30 minutes, scrambling across rocks and climbing some steep sandy sections that seemed way too dangerous to be part of the trail (sorry mom!). Looking ahead, the footprints continued along the coast and then climbed straight up a super steep, super tall sand dune. It looked miserable. We decided there was no way this was the right way, and turned around to backtrack. We eventually found the right trail and continued on, but we had hiked an extra hour and were exhausted. And still had 2 more hours until our campsite. Ugh. We pushed on, hiking across red baked clay, sandy dunes, and through low scrubs, with views to Cape Maria Van Dieman and ahead to Twilight Beach. It was actually a really nice walk, now that we knew where we were going!
Twilight Beach, home for the 2nd night. Only a bit further!
Finally, we made it to our campsite on Twilight Beach at about 6pm (after 8 hrs hiking, supposed to be 15K but probably more like 17K due to our detour, oops!), and set up for the night. When we did the Kepler Track back in January, we finished each day at about 2pm, and were bored for the rest of the day. So for this hike, we brought along fishing gear, a frisbee (gotta practice for my ultimate frisbee team!), books, cards, etc. We imagined lazing around for several hrs each afternoon in the sun, fishing and throwing around the frisbee. Not quite how it worked out, maybe next time we will plan more of a relaxing hike! :-) Anyway, Twilight Beach was another beautiful location, and we ate our dinner (soup and rice) watching the waves crash on the shore.
Clouds and rain were moving in, so it was much warmer that night - I may not have even needed my sleeping bag, but it started pouring in the middle of the night and our tent started leaking on our sleeping bags. But at least we stayed dry! It was a major downpour, so we were actually glad that our cheapo NZ$50 (~US$35) tent held up as well as it did! The next morning we packed up in between rain, and set off for the last section of the hike - another 10K, to take about 3.5 hrs. Almost as soon as we started walking, heavy rain blew in and drenched us. It continued to rain on and off throughout the morning, ranging from light drizzles to steady downpours. We were completely soaked, even through waterproof jackets, and the water in my boots was sloshing around and causing some major blisters. The first half of the hike was along rideglines, but we couldn't see much due to the rain. The we descended down for an hr long walk along 90 Mile Beach, before turning inland and walking up the Te Paki stream bed for another hr. The stream bed is about 30m wide, totally flat sand, with water weaving all over. This made the last hr pretty rough - constantly crossing small sections of the stream (feet are already wet!) and walking on soft, wet sand (that is tough when you are exhausted!). We were passed by a few more tour buses - they drive along 90 Mile Beach, then up the Te Paki stream bed, stopping to let the passengers try the sand boarding that the area is known for (I have seen some major wipeouts on some really steep slopes, and decided that sand surfing was not for me!).
We caught up with one of the buses as they were handing out boogie boards to passengers. A few of the passengers came up to talk to us. Conversation went something like this:Tourist #1: Oh wow, where have you two hiked from?
-small chit chat about the hike-
Tourist #2 (looking at Eric with concern): So, are you having fun?
Eric (laughing): Um, not anymore!
Tourist #2 (also laughing): I didn't think so by the look on your face!
I don't think they will be passing up their nice tour bus to hike the track anytime soon, haha. We reached the finish shortly afterwards, and sat munching on the remains of our trail mix while waiting for our ride. It was a really hard hike, much tougher than we thought, but the views along the way were beautiful and it was really rewarding to finish something that had been a challenge. Sometime during that last rainy morning, we decided our next weekend camping trip will be a bit more relaxing - driving right up to the campsite, lots of fishing and relaxing on the beach. But a day or so after we finished, Eric was already talking about how awesome the hike was and when can we do another?
Wow. That sounds like quite a hike. Anne & I were one of those sandboarding tourists last year about this time. We just have to start saving for a another plane ticket so we can come down and visit you guys.
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