Author and wife begin Cape to Bluff walk

James McCreet and Monika Stanley had barely begun their length of New Zealand walk via Te Araroa (the Long Pathway) when they hoisted their packs on to their backs and disappeared into the bush at the top of the Herekino Gorge last week, but they were already impressed with their encounter with the Far North's topography and climate since leaving from Cape Reinga a week earlier.

The English novelist and his wife (Polish by birth, and James' boss when they met in Poland, where he was teaching English), took six days to traverse the beach, James saying it had been an exhausting but exhilarating experience, during which they encountered "pretty much" every kind of weather.

"The Tasman Sea certainly knows how to brew a special combination of rain and wind," he said."We don't have GPS so we didn't know where we were," Monika added.

"On the last day were were walking into a very strong headwind, which made it hard, with a shower, then sunny, then another shower. We weren't expecting that. We've never seen anything like it."

It had taken two days to remove the sand from their clothes, equipment and "various orifices," James said. (Their mementos of that walk include the Our Place photograph on page 5.)

The couple expect to complete their 3000-kilometre marathon in six months; they're not in any particular hurry, having sold their home in England to fund the experience and with no great desire to return there.

They agreed that Australia and/or New Zealand had greater appeal, not least for their climates, apart from 90 Mile on a boisterous spring day, and Monika had found one strong reminder of home. She had been delighted to find the aristocratic Polish name Sobieski in the Far North, which made her feel a little more at home, even if little else was remotely familiar.

By Tuesday night the couple were ensconced in their tent on a ridge "somewhere in the Raetea Forest", bound for Kerikeri via Mangamuka Bridge.

They were covered in mud, James said, looking forward to a proper bed, while he (who once confessed in an interview that eating himself to a standstill was his greatest vice) was dreaming of a traditional Sunday lunch, and Monika of a tropical fruit salad.

James, who has worked as a teacher, book-seller, journalist, editor, copywriter and holiday rep, is the author of three published novels (with two more in the pipeline) described as Victorian detective thrillers.