Epic Hikes of the World ( PDFDrive )

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the cliffs of the Cape
Nothing has prepared me for the curtains to pull back on a scene quite like this.
Until now the hike has been beautiful, but I’ve just stepped across the line into
extraordinary.
I’d begun my hike five hours earlier, setting out from the strung-out settlement of
Rawhiti, where steps ascend to a low ridge. Within moments I’m looking down into
paradise – unruly bush tumbling down the slopes to empty, cream-coloured sands
washed smooth by the tide. I drop my pack and descend to the beach. I’ve been
walking for two minutes after all... I’m due a break.
When I return to my pack, an elderly Maori man is standing beside it. He’s come
to Rawhiti looking for an ancestor’s grave. ‘A local guy said the cemetery is over
there,’ he says, pointing back along the low ridge on which we stand. ‘Can you
imagine carrying a dead body up here?’ I look up to the ridge where I’m heading,
close to 1000ft (300m) above us, and the dead weight of the backpack beside me,
and just nod.
From here my journey has been simple, if not always easy. The track ascends to
the ridgetop that forms the spine of the cape. Like all spines, this one is full of
vertebrae, most of which I have to climb, turning the next few hours into a sweaty
grind broken by occasional peeps through the forest into the Bay of Islands, which