The day started a bit late, Rowan was hard to wake and hasn’t had a very good sleep in a while so I let him lay in a bit. We had a chat to Alan the cyclist before heading off. At cowboy time 10.10am we had our thumbs out, it was raining and we got soaked. We stayed there for 20min before walking further down the road. By the time we were walking through Manunui we started regretting leaving our warm dry tent. At this point we were pretty soaked the rain had come down harder. We decided to walk to the intersection that turns off to Turangi. Now we have been hitching for over an hour and feeling a bit deflated and hungry. We go to walk back to the servo and I say should we try get to Turangi where we will be on highway 1. We debate it for a bit and end up splitting up. Rowan on the turn off to Turangi and I am on the road to Whanganui. Bam, I have two rides offered within half an hour, one a single cab ute which obviously can’t take us both. The other who seemed a bit dodgy and could have fit us both in but only wanted to take me phew. We were chatting again about staying split up and Rowan said he will just sit down to look less big and scary. He had just taken off his pack and gone to sit down and boom, a nice man said he could take us to Owhango. Just over 2 hours to get our first ride of the day.

We decided to stay at the spot he left us for 30min and if no one came along we would walk back to the cafe we passed and get some food. Not long and a lovely couple in a nice Ford pulled over. Jan & Barry were heading to Ohakune and said they could drop us off a bit further down the road. Extremely easy to talk to and we got along well. The 40min or so in the car went by in a flash. They even dropped us a bit off track for them to Raetihi, outside a cafe. We thanked them for the ride and let them know I blog our journey. We sat down in the Coach Cafe and we get a cheap meal $19 plenty of tasty food, the best way to describe it “like going to your local chippy & bakery turned into sit down restaurant.”

After lunch we walked down to the main road to hitch. I stuck out my thumb but the traffic was very minimal. We had two blokes opposite us building a fence. One came over to chat. I realised we were only a few metres from the holiday park and Rowan said we will go until 3.30pm and if we get no ride we will stay here. A stranger came up to us and gave us some cardboard to write up a sign (thanks Barry for that pen!). Our other sign got wet so we ditched it. After a sign was made and I had some fun being silly the man came back and had an idea on how to get us a ride. “What type of coffee do you drink?” Latte’s we responded. “I will go get you some coffee and by the time I am back you will be gone.” Well the trick didn’t work but it was extremely nice of him to buy us coffee. 4min until we give up and a nice fella named Sarne picked us up, he had been working at The Blue Duck. He had completed the Te Araroa back in 2012. Chatting all the way the Whanganui, he dropped us off in the centre of town. We made it to the pharmacy 10min before 5pm.

Rowan was happy to have his pills. We start looking for an airbnb or hotel to stay at. Unfortunately the campground is way out of town and the freedom camping areas don’t allow tents. Rowan finds a hotel for about $100. We walk into the Grand Hotel and ask what it costs for a room and he said we can go check it out first if we like and hands us a room key. We head upstairs and I open the room, first I thought no one has made the beds. Then I hear a timid voice “Hello?” Oh no there is someone in the bed, I apologise profusely and back out of the room. Feeling bad and wondering if this is a place I want to stay. Well we end up booking online as it was cheaper than at the front desk, which is strange as they pay fees for people to book with booking.com. we get up to our room and I take my boots of yay, happy feet. Rowan is coming down with whatever the Cambridge kids had and it takes us a while to make a dinner decision. We end up with a meal from Noodle Canteen that we take back to our room. Hopefully Rowan feels okay in the morning, he is asleep already.