Hillary and the beach from the Piano movie
Brent and I have been learning a lot about Sir Ed Hillary - one of first two men to summit Everest in 1953 and arguably the most famous New Zealander other than Bruce McLaren. Unlike most of New Zealand climbers, who like Brent, are Cantabrians (people from Canterbury, New Zealand), Hillary was from the North Island and used to trek around Auckland in order to train for his Himalayan expeditions. As a result today, the New Zealand government maintains a network or loosely connected point to point trails a dozen kilometers outside Auckland that together comprise the “Hilary Trail”.
Brent has been talking about the Hillary Trail since he started researching activities around Auckland. Despite living in Auckland for a few years after university, Brent had never done the trail or even heard of it. Unfortunately, as with many other backcountry trail networks in New Zealand, unlike the Great Walks, it’s really difficult to find information on them and to get bookings in advance. It wasn’t until we got to the DOC (Department of Conservation) office - a beautiful building in the Maori style in the Waitakere Ranges - that we got more information about the track.
Unfortunately, large segments of the Hillary Trek were closed due to a spore-based disease that’s killing off Kauri trees - the beautiful baobab-like trees that are sacred to the Maori and that serve as huge homes for a range of birds. Those are the trees that Maori make their war canoes from. The DOC is taking a lot of preventative measures to curb the spread of the disease. The very first hike we did near Auckland was in a region with Kauri trees. There were stations with spray cleaner and disinfectant set up periodically through the park - we were asked to spray the soles of our shoes and our hiking poles every time we passed through a station.
An old kauri tree that we saw on our first hike in the North Island (the day before we visited the Hillary Trail)
On the Hillary trek, the same disease was threatening large numbers of old-growth Kauri trees, so these sections were completely closed to trekkers. Rather than battle with complex logistics and figure out transpiration between the different segments of the trek, Brent and I decided instead on a day hike on one of the Hillary Trek segments - the one from Karekare beach to Piha. The hike was beautiful - it followed the ridge line in the bush, giving us periodic views onto the shore and the different bays and beaches below.
On our return, we were rewarded with a visit to Karekare Beach, where we took a dip among the huge waves battling the shore. Karekare beach was the famous location where Ada’s beloved piano is stranded in the movie “the Piano”. I loved the broad beach and the beautiful expansive view of the shore and it was quite refreshing to finally be able to take a fully body dip in the Tasman Sea.
Happy on Karekare beach
