Going For Gold

Brrrrrrring. It’s 4:30am, so getting out of bed is a bit of a struggle.

- Jannik Wittgen - Orewa College

But I don’t hesitate for too long, because I am about to set off on my Duke of Edinburgh Gold adventurous journey with 12 other students, a trip we had been planning for the past 8 months. Writing route plans, calculating distances, filling out risk analysis forms—it all led to this. But first we had to brave a 6-hour drive north, to Cape Reinga and Spirit’s Bay, where we would be hiking.

When we finally arrived at the Te Paki Stream trailhead around 11:00am, everyone was already tired, and we hadn’t even started our 18km hike for the day. We were glad that we got out of Auckland when we did though, because shortly after we left, a thunderstorm struck, forcing students to stay indoors.

After sunscreen was applied, packs adjusted and a group photo taken, we set off on our tramp. But we quickly faced our first obstacle—Te Paki Stream. It was full of water, and apparently, we had to walk down it, but no-one wanted to get their boots wet so early in the tramp. Strategies were numerous: some walked up and down the dunes next to the stream, others carefully picked out shallow water to step in, and the smartest just took off their boots and embraced the water. All of us safely made it down the stream to 90-mile beach, although not without a detour up the giant Te Paki dunes for those of us that had too much energy.