Rowan is not feeling 100%, we decide to hitch a little bit further to Bulls.  There is a campground there and it is a lot cheaper than staying in a hotel!  We set off and get some breakfast at Subway.  Whanganui is a bit of a strange town.  Not many people around and I wonder how the businesses survive.  There also quite a lot of homeless people.  Apparently all the freedom camping sites around the area are full of people that are not able to find a home.  We have a few items like extra pills and op shop finds we need to post.  At the post office it is all closed up but one entry, the bags are behind the counter to stop people stealing them.  Rowan also needed to post back his Grandmas ID that he accidentally took home with him.  Our lovely neighbours back in Brooklands are taking our parcel, not that I forewarned them but they’re awesome!  We headed out of town and needed to walk about 4km to get to the right road to hitch.  It wasn’t long and a Swift picked us up.  The man was a missionary who is over looking after his father who is about to pass.  He told us all about his work (don’t worry Rowan was on his best behaviour, I just sat in the back watching the landscape pass by.  He told us a Jesus would pick up hitchhikers and it isn’t very Christian not to help people in need.  I can’t complain can I?  It got me a ride.  At the end of the ride he prayed for us.

Once in Bulls we had a quick kilometre to walk to arrive at a trail angels place to pick up a package my Nana sent to us. It had a new credit card, some paper maps and a charging dock for a smart watch Rowan scored for $2 at an op shop. From there it was another kilometre to the local campground. We got there and set up our tent. This is the first campground we have stayed at with a pool and a spa! Will have to make use of that later. By the time we faffed around we didn’t go back into town till 2pm. We got some lunch and some food for dinner. We are very close to the Taurarua Ranges that we thought it would be smart to keep our freeze dried food. Most people take 3-6 days to walk the area. We will be more like 10-15 days hehe. Tomorrow we are taking it fairly easy and aiming for a 9km-ish day. We need to ease these fat bods back into it. Plus I am feeling this heat, my hands and feet keep swelling!

For the afternoon we relaxed and read our book, had a small discussion on where we are heading and planning ahead. We took a dip in the pool then hopped into the spa to read our books. Eventually I got out and had a shower, by this time it was dinner time. I have been writting this since Rowan started getting it ready and now we have finished eating. Totally forgot about Guy Fawkes and now someone at the campground is setting them off. Lucky for us the kids sound devastated and scared so I don’t think they will set any more off.