I am motivated to walk. We watch the others pack to carry on their hikes. Rowan and I plan only 5km so can leave a bit later. My foot is sore but I think I can make it. We discuss in full and come to the decision that it is unwise to walk today. Instead we get our wet shoes and clothes out to dry.
At lunchtime a couple of Australians swing by and stop to eat. They are doing a big day and have another 15km to go. Tom & Lily work as hiking guides in Australia. We end up chatting for over an hour. They are going down a different track through the ranges. One Rowan and I were really tempted by when we looked at this section. We wished them all the best.
The rain arrived in the afternoon, luckily we got everything dry. I am getting used to putting on wet clothes and shoes but it sure ain’t pleasant!
After a lot of discussion we decided to take the new route even though we were sorely tempted to go across the private land. My ankle is not 100% but we decide to see where we can get too. On the detour there are some great big Rimu and Tawa trees. We get over taken by a couple of Czech guys about 2km in. The James Burton whare site takes us 1.5hr to get to. My ankle was doing surprisingly well so we carried on. I am slow but it isn’t a race. I don’t know how many streams we crossed but it must be at least 15. At a fallen tree we meet a older couple who are not sure where they will stop tonight.
Rowan is such a champion, he has taken on all of the gear minus some small light stuff that won’t fit. The Aarn is now only 7kg for me to carry which feels as light as a feather. The notes say the road is pretty wide and easy. Well it is in parts, but there are plenty of hairy parts, actually more than wide parts. Clashes of thunder above, I wish we could see the lightning to work out how far away it is. For lunch we set up the outer of the tent and hide in there, hoping the rain goes before we start walking again. Another 4.5km to go before we reach hut. My ankle is still going good. The last 1km is a killer! Rowans knees are not handling all the weight and my ankle is getting pretty sore. We also are not eating as many calories as we normally would as we need to ration our food. I am quickly getting more sluggish. Then we come across a huge slip. I cry at this point, my body is not up for this! Rowan helps me up and over. We finally reach the road. 500m or so of hobbling and we arrive at the hut. Yay, what a horrid day. The Czech guys are there, they cheer me on the last 50m. Wendy and Jerome are also inside all cosy. 5.30pm is a late time for us to stop but as I was so slow it took 8 hours. By the time we get the tent up, clothes off and washed in the river it is 7pm. A late dinner, and straight into bed. The hut sleeps 6 which is rather cosy, we are much happier in our wee palace. I miss the tent when I am not in it.
My ankle is not happy with me, there is no way I can walk today. In agony I get up to pee. The rest of the day I get around when I need to by crawling. Rowan gets the pillows so I can elevate it and I get the first aid kit out and put a compression bandage on. I basically lie down all day and only shuffle around when one sitting position gets too sore. I am annoyed at myself, stupid, arrogant, stubborn bitch. In hindsight we should have gotten a lift back to Palmerston North and I could have rested up until it was better.
At least we are in a really nice location by the river. The sun is shinning and there are plenty of trees to keep the area shady. We end up resting my foot for another day here with the hope we can keep on moving the next day.
3km down the road and I am regretting leaving the whare.
Woke to rain, more and more rain. It was a pleasant start with only 8km to our destination, possibly 11km if I can handle it. My ankle is sore but I think I will be fine it feels better than yesterday. We set off on the forest road Rowan shows me a sleeping possum in a tree
The track is mostly uphill and the last 50m is steep but you can see a picnic table to motivate you to the top. By now my ankle is pretty sore. We head into Burtons Track a bush walk which is mostly downhill (my ankle is in pain). We stop for a rest and two hikers in their 60s catch up to us. They’re heading to the further spot we were hoping for and they started back at the carpark. We chatted for a while then we carried on, there was no way we would keep up with them.
Further along again we stop and a French hiker passes us. We have a stream crossing which gets our boots wet. A bit further and we are at Tokomaru Stream it is 1pm. Now there is a detour ahead which takes you 2km off the original track but it is steep and much like what we have been doing. Rowan leaves me sitting to see if we could make it the 1km along the river on the original track. Turns out it is private land so definitely need to do the detour. I can’t bring myself to puff and struggle 1.5hr up the hill and struggle back down. I want to stay right here! Rowan is fine with that only 6km done but now we are days to get out, there is no way I am going back so the only way if forward. We relax in the shade right on the river. It is really beautiful and relaxing. Down stream is a deep swimming spot, Rowan helps me across the river and we have a wash, it feels good to shampoo my hair. We relax the rest of the afternoon, pull the solar panel out and read our books.
Rain rain go away! Today was a fairly easy walk, 8km. But man my ankle is sore, I minced along slowly for the day. The rain was relentless, we got over it pretty fast but we sure got wet! At the top of the park was a shelter so we relaxed in there and dried off a bit before setting off again. I can handle ups a lot better than flat or going down hill. There was about equal of both. The rain finally stopped about 30min before we hit the hut, so we dried out a little.
Once we arrived it just rained and rained some more. Originally we had planned to stay here, but yesterday we thought about walking a further 3km today to get a bit further and make the following day easier. Well I really couldn’t walk anymore so we are staying here tonight. Looks like we will have the place to ourselves which will be fantastic. This hut has been erected by the Te Araroa Trust, it is well designed and thought out. This is on council land so they must have gotten permission to put it here. I am hoping I can be moving faster tomorrow, I don’t want to take time off for this silly ankle. There are a few books left in the hut and I have taken one to read, Wild Journeys by Bruce Ansley. I will pass it on when I have finished with it. The sandflies and mosquitos seem to be okay here. We went down to the stream, got naked and washed. I didn’t get in as I was worried about balance so Rowan handed me up bottles full of water to splash on myself. It has taken a few hours to warm back up again. Tonight we have teriyaki spam for dinner, it is surprisingly good.
22.5km! However 4km of this we did with the scooter. It seemed silly not to take advantage and get out of the boring suburbia via scooter.
It has been mostly of roads the whole day. My ankle really started playing up for the last 5km, I hope it feels better tomorrow. We took a good hour out for lunch on a berm. After lunch was the hardest part of the day for Rowan, for me it was the last 5km. We ran into some North bound hikers who were trying to walk as far as possible before Christmas. There was an aim to get to the reserve today but we ended up pushing another 4km to get to the next spot. We arrived at Kahuterawa outdoor recreation hub just before 4pm. We have had a chat to a few people since arriving. Mike a family man with 4 kids is just heading in now (6.30pm) and expects to be put around 9.30pm. We told him we will probably be asleep by then haha. There is full bike tracks and walking tracks through here and about 15 cars when we arrived. It is a busy place.
After I signed off last night we were still having mat issues. Rowan took them into the shower with him and found 6 holes! One on mine and five on his. By this time it was getting late but we wanted to fix them so we headed to the TV room and 45min later they were fixed, so much for an early night! The next day we were awake around 5am the weather for the day looks atrocious, we decide to stay so we can miss the weather and buy more patches for our mats. Onto the scooters we head off and the rain begins. Luckily the wind hasn’t gotten really bad yet. We end up spending the morning, going from shop to shop looking for a rain jacket for Rowan, with bad weather forecasted for our trip through the range it really needs to be better than what he has. Afterwards we get more food from the supermarket for dinner tonight and head to a kebab place for lunch. We get back to the campground just as it starts really coming down. We got rather wet and headed inside to dry off. The rest of the afternoon was spent drying off and relaxing. We were in bed by 8pm, nice and early for tomorrow.
Scootering down the road after 8am on our way to the shops. We end up at Kmart where they have these small bottles we have been trying to get more of. Yay this Kmart has them. It is too early for Macpac to open so we go for Subway breakfast. After sorting out Rowan’s backpack at Macpac, we go food shopping. There needs to be enough food for at least 6 days before we can resupply. With the shopping done I need to go to the pharmacy for more blister packs, here is hoping I don’t need them too much. Then we get some McDonald’s as an early lunch and head back to the campground. All our town jobs done time to sort the food. It takes 3 tables but we now have enough meals for 6 days and two extra days of mix and match if necessary.
The sea to summit mats have been deflating during the night, I am hoping that it is just a valve issue and I put some pawpaw on them before we went to the shops. Next we borrow a pen and get an idea of where we can sleep how many kilometres it will take between campsites. At the moment we have an estimated arrival at the resupply of 4 days. Only time will tell. Not sure if I have fixed our mat issues hopefully I won’t be inflating them throughout the night.
It’s not even a word but it is the best one to describe today. I woke at 11.30pm to see the eclipse, it wasn’t that special so I didn’t wake Rowan (he was angry at me for not). We got up and was ready pretty early. Robyn dropped us into town before 9am. We had subway for breakfast and began walking. 2km in and I was wondering if we were there yet. We stopped about 5km in and found some shade, then continued another 5km to Bunnythorpe and had some lunch. There was a small dirt track and across the water on a log instead of using the bridge. We had stopped at the public toilets and there was a dairy. I decided I wanted an icecream and Rowan was going to get a cold drink, well the shop was bare no food in it part from a couple of coke cans. Well that was a flop. Continuing on it took us for a few km along farm land and farm roads, I don’t know how many styles we crossed but there were a lot. I fell flat over at one point when I got tripped up, luckily I didn’t damage my camera just my ego. I was annoyed that we had some other terrain, my feet were killing me but I was bothered that they were slowing us down by making a farm detour. We finally arrived into Palmerston North but still had about 9km until the campground. We had walked 17.5km. We decided to bus or scooter the last bit as we were not going to make it. We found two flamingo scooters and took them into town. It took a bit of getting used to it and we were on our way. My feet still hurt really bad on the scooter but at least we got there a lot faster. We ended up eating an early dinner at Carl’s Jr before carrying on to the campground. Finally at our destination at 6pm. Unfortunately no time to get our errands done. Rowan has to go to Macpac and we need to get all our meals sorted for the Tararua trail.
I am so exhausted I am trying to type this out and nearly falling asleep, the road walking has taken it out of me. There is not much shade which didn’t help, I drank tonnes of water but hardly went for a pee. I can see why majority if people hitch these parts as they are incredibly boring but also hard on your feet. I am glad at lunchtime that I added on some blister plasters, I am sure my feet would have been worse if I didn’t. Now summoning the energy to go brush my teeth. Better go do it before I fall asleep 😴
The day was a bit of a late start (7am), not really late but we had a big day ahead of road walking. Rowan was not up for the task and to be honest my feet were thankful! I ended up reading an entire book, Catch Me If You Can by Frank W. Abagnale. Rowan read two books.
Sheepies
We had some neighbouring animals including ducks. There were tuna (eels) in the pond. We stayed out of the sun and enjoyed being in the shade for the day. We got talking to the neighbours and one lady Robyn came over out of the blue and offered us a ride. We are very thankful we don’t need to walk the 4km back to the track tomorrow morning.
Kiwi Hobos 