The Tora Coastal Walk is a three-day walk which encompasses a variety of stunning and diverse landscapes: expansive farmland, native bush, river valleys and the rugged Tora coastline. Family owned and operated they promise spectacular scenery, gourmet food, and warm rural hospitality. It’s one of the longest standing private walks in New Zealand, and widely regarded as the best. That is an edited introduction from their website.
Jim booked this walk back in March when Helen and Sue recommended it and advised that it fills up fast as they only send out 14 people per day and it is quite popular.
We will start with some beautiful scenery as we drive to Tora. It is under an hour drive from Greytown going south through Martinborough where we have been a few times already.
Hop in the back seat and come along for the ride in this video that Sandy took. click on the photo to start it.
We hope this video drive does not make you car sick 😱🤢🤮We have arrived at Whakapata Cottage our destination for the first night before begining our Tora Walk.Being the first to arrive we had our choice of bedroom and we chose this one which was close to the bathroom.This was the only bathroom in the house. There was another but it meant going outside. So not much for 11 people.Communal dining room. There was a list on the table of 11 names that was our group.Kitchen where food prep and clean up will be done by us and whoever else is doing the hike.Living room where people gather and get to know their fellow “tramping mates”. The kiwis use the term tramping instead of hiking.Dinner Menu with prep instructions as well as instruction for breakfast and takeaway lunch.Fridge stocked with our food for tonight and some morning provisions.Instructions regarding laundry. The linen set provided was only a bottom fitted sheet and one pillow case. We were able to borrow sleeping bags from friends of our friends.After having breakfast and preparing snacks and lunch to bring along we were off for our first long day’s tramp at 7:15 am. It will be a little over 9.3 miles (15.5K) and projected to take 4-5 hours without stopping. That turned out to be the first lie.🤥To reach the beginning of the trail we had a few sheep to walk through. It was impossible to avoid getting sheep poo on our shoes.The Tora walk brochure states that we are about to embark on an epic adventure, climbing from the valley through Brown Hill with a scenic side trip up the Bugler and continue along the Longspur Ridge before reaching Rocky Knob which is the highest point on the three day hike before descending steeply to the coast.Our start was very very windy but mild temperature. However we knew rain was in the forecast for us at the pace we were going.As you can see the track was clearly marked. This was called a bulldozed track. We had to follow the blue arrows.Sometimes they were hard to find and you had to just hope you were on the correct path. It was always a relief to see the next blue arrow.We were provided with some amazing scenery and saw lots of sheep, cows and horses.The clouds forewarned us that rain was on its way.We spent several stretches of walks in the forest. There was no question that we were to go through this gate. The walk itself is through active farmlands once owned by returning servicemen from WWI and WWII.This Woolshed 25 was our halfway point where we stopped for lunch. We were happy to have our poles to navigate the steep up and down terrain that seemed to go on forever.This for Sandy was the most difficult part of the tramp. She kept slipping backwards on the scree. Finally Jim had to get behind her and push her tush up to keep her going forward and not slip back down. The path was dry and covered with small pebbles that rolled beneath your footing.10k only a bit over 5k more to go but we still haven’t reached the highest point.Yeah no problem here she just grabbed the fence posts and pulled herself up the hill.Rocky Point the highest Point of the three day hike, 318 meters! It is the highest point but there are still more downs and UPS which Jim hates.
Yup its raining now and very windy but we can see the ocean.Finally going down but it has been so steep that we used the fenceposts and now they have provided a rope.Climbing over a stile. A stile for you city slickers is a structure like steps or a ladder that allows people to cross a fence while preventing livestock from getting through, it is common on rural footpaths. Finally reached the South Pacific Ocean Coast.We are now exiting the trail onto a road at the 12.8K mark with another 2.8K to go before reaching our accommodations. Needless to say we were quite tired at this point.We had to walk on this road to get to our place for the night in Stony Bay. Almost there with a couple of sheep as a welcoming committee.9.9 miles and 7 hours later this was a welcome site. We arrived to be greeted by a trio of woman who started 30 minutes ahead of us. They were cozied up in the living room by a fire and had been there for maybe two hours. They never got any rain and were surprised to see us come in soaking wet. After a shower Sandy went to bed and slept until Jim woke her for dinner. After dinner we went back to bed for the night too tired to socialize or take photos of the beautiful lodge. Jim did socialize and have cocktails while Sandy slept.
Below is a photo we pulled off of the internet of Stony Bay Cottage.
Day two we started out late as we waited for a break in the torrential downpour.We walked the road along the ocean.We opted not to detour to the Trig which was an optional steep climb to a 301 meter elevation lookout through thick slippery mud in the pouring rain. Out of eleven trampers, seven opted to do it.We walked for two hours before reaching the Greentops Farmhouse which was our last nights accommodations. We experienced minimal rain sprinkles on our 6K walk.Greentops, named after the roof.Again we were greeted by the sheep.Greentops Farmhouse has a wonderful history. Beginning life as a simple abode to house returned servicemen who settled on their return in 1950. It has been lovingly nurtured by generations of families. It now sits proudly within an established garden , enveloped by majestic hills with views of the South Pacific Ocean.Dinner menu for tonight.The Trig which we did not climb.Kitchen and dining tableCozy fireplace where our fellow trampers put their wet clothes and muddy shoes to dry. Jim started the fire.Breakfast preparation last day.Our fellow trampers. This was a trio of kiwi women who met when their children went to school together. Left to right are Beverly, Denise and Denise.Bev and husband Martin.More Kiwis. A family consisting of three generations; grandmother age 77, daughter and two granddaughters who are cousins.This is the last time we smiled.The trek home was brutal.Day three begins.We follow the orange arrows today but return on the blue.Up another damn hill we go.With more f…ing beautiful scenery.Wait is that three generation family catching up to us.And just like that they passed us like we were standing still.Whose woods are these…. WE DO NOT CARE.He’s smiling but trust me he is so over this trek. The long hilly day tramp took its toll on us and we are not quite recovered by day three.This narrow trail in the woods with a steep drop off went on for miles as we followed the damn orange arrow.Finally a blue arrow leading us to our final destination in Tora where we started.Flat but not for long but at least we are out of the woods.Exhausted we plopped down and ate lunch.That’s really not a smile.We enjoyed the expansive views in front of us as we shared a tomato sandwich before ending our tramp.This sheep was waiting for us as if to say; “are you coming or not”.
We were so tired that we took no more pictures. We have definitely gotten deconditioned from a lack of exercise and specifically long walks which we used to do all the time. Day 1 and 3 were both tough on both of us, thank goodness for the relative rest day of only 6K on the flat road. We will not give up on tramping though.
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