With a bus to catch at 7.25am we got up and organised early. The bus took us into the city centre and we walked from there to a local cafe called Orange. The food and coffee was really good and the owner gave us some kids biscuits for our walk. I greatly appreciated those later in the day. When we arrived we got chatting to a couple Peter & Lee who insisted we take their details and if we have an SOS they will come rescue us and to get back in touch after we have rated the Whanganui river.

As we headed out of town a local stopped us letting us know the Durie Elevator is currently broken down and a different way to get up if we didn’t want to do the stairs. Well that is disappointing, not because I don’t want to walk it because I really wanted to experience the elevator. When we got to the stairs we did them, it took a few puffed breaks but we got to the top in no time.

When we got up to the top very hot and very sweaty. I went up the spiral staircase to see the view, which was so good I could see Mt Ruapehu. Rowan got the energy and came up too!

In the shade of a tower we attempted to cool down. Eventually I thought I better take a look. It is made out of fossils essentially and dedicated to those lost in world war 1. I think it was erected to help give old veterans a job post war. I wouldn’t bother going up it again the views are not as good as the other platform as you are in a cage to stop jumpers.

We hit the street and get about 3km put before we find a nice berm and shade outside a farmers place. The heat of the day is insane we are at 30°c. However it is after 1.30pm when we get walking again so in theory it should cool down. Nope nope nope our theory is wrong. We get another 2km down the road and find an uncomfortable spot next to a power station. Not much to choose from and we eat some late lunch here. The day gets warmer 32°c we are baking, the tar on the road is melting and radiating the heat. After a while I realise Rowan is badly burnt. It must have been sitting at the cafe for 30min pre 9am. At 4pm we have forecast for rain which we hope turns up sooner. It doesn’t arrive, by 4pm it has cooled down a few degrees and we begin to walk again. We are only halfway there. We get to an old church and take cover under a tree. By this time it is 6pm and we have 4km to go. A bit of rain shows up and we talk about pitching on their berm. I hear the neighbours lawn mower start up and I head over to say hello. I tell her we just can’t make it to Fordell can we pitch on her lawn. She insists on giving us a ride into Fordell. Thankful but we also have no where to stay in the area. We get dropped off and Rowan says the Germans (we met in Levin) stayed on a lady called Karen’s lawn. Rowan rocks up to a lady on her mower and asks her if there is somewhere we can camp tonight. “Right here,” she said. “Are you Karen?” “Yes, I am.” That is lucky. Karen and Tony are very kind and show us where we can sleep and use a toilet in their garage. Karen makes me a cuppa which I greatly appreciate. Tony brings over a table and chair set so we have somewhere to sleep. Today was hell, this is what we didn’t want to do, walk in the North Island in summer. Even worse road walking. This is such a crappy part we need to do. Rowan is completely unmotivated and I can’t say I blame him.

It is still really hot and the rain is not coming until the morning now. At least we can’t complain about being hot tomorrow we can complain about being wet.

Sunday, we crawled out from under the bridge and thumbed a ride into Waikanae. Rowan was really hungry so we got Subway for breakfast. We put our thumbs out and 30min later a bus went past to Otaki, oh man I wished we knee that. Well the next one comes in an hour. Waikanae isn’t on the main trunk road so we will bus if needs be. After an hour of attempting to hitch the rain comes. We decide to stay dry and go to the bus stop. In the time we were waiting for a ride we saw 4 groups of hikers. I don’t think we will be alone in the ranges. We get to Otaki and from there it doesn’t take long for a car to pick us up. These two ladies take us right to Geoff the trail angel in Levin. Geoff isn’t home but we make ourselves at home it is 30°c not a civilised temperature at all! We will stay at least two nights here. Geoff made us fish and vege for dinner it was really good.

Monday, we aimed to get a few jobs done and ended up in town. We went to mitre10 for some plastic tubing for Rowans water bladder. We walked to all the op shops and then off for lunch at Subway. Then on to New World and then walked back to Geoff’s. Rowan said he would make dinner and we ended up with a German walker Rene for dinner. He booked at the campground but ended up staying the night with us. Sounds like he has been walking with the wrong style of hikers. They don’t match what he likes. I thought my blisters were bad but he takes the cake and the icing. Basically his whole foot at the base is blistered and when he compensated for the pain he ended up with blisters on his toes. I know what that is like you walk funny to make it hurt less and end up with blisters in a new spot.

Tuesday, today is the day we are supposed to head into the Tararua ranges, the weather doesn’t look great so we will head north and fill in Whanganui to Bulls a 65km section we haven’t done. We already decided one more night then we will hitch north to either Bulls or Whanganui. Rene’s hiking friends are due to come out of the ranges where we aimed for but couldn’t make it because of my ankle. They got in late, around 6pm so Rowan’s dinner was late about 9pm by the time they shopped and showered. We decided not to drink because walking the next day but the Germans got into beer and rum haha. After a late night the night before I headed to bed about 11pm. I got a rude awakening from Rowan at 3am. He headed to bed with his tail between his legs. Geoff had come out and told them off for being noisy and keeping them up. Which is fair enough! Luckily I am in the good graces as being a Nana and loving my sleep. Because we ate so late Rowan didn’t realise how late at night it was.

Wednesday, the lovely Geoff hasn’t held a grudge against the boys keeping him up. He drops us off to the end of town to make getting a ride easier. We thank him for having us again. It takes us a long time to get a ride, my arm grows tired. A local lady walks past and has a nice chat to us and a ute comes along and picks us up. Peter is a local Tarankian (I made that up) and is happy to take us to Whanganui. He has traveled extensively and hiked a lot of NZ. We chat all the way and he takes us right to the seaside campground. By this time it is 1pm we were hoping to start walking around 10am and we need to do 15km so we are staying here tonight and making a headstart in the morning.

Ahead of schedule! The rain made us unmotivated, nice and dry in out little home. However there is promise of a bird sanctuary and cafe just 2km down the road. Off we trot or should I saw dawdle to Staglands. It is a cool log cabin place and the coffee is great. I enjoy the warmth inside and decide to eat lunch here.

We made a hard deadline to leave by but only have 6km to go for the day. Just as we are about to leave Graeme and his family arrive, great grandkids too! We get chatting for a bit then decide it is definitely time to go. As we stand up to leave we say goodbye and Graeme says don’t be silly I will drop you at the top of the hill. We sit back down and wait for him to finish his lunch. Graeme drops us off at the top of the hill and we are thankful. Now there is no where special or easy to errect our tent so we walk on a bit further down the hill. Well next thing we know we have walked a kilometre down the hill and another and another. No where nice or easy to pitch. Before we know it we have no choice private properties are now coming up. I message all the trail angels in the area and all are full! There is a eco farm another 3km down the road and we attempt to walk there but my toe is killing me. It hurts so much I can’t help but cry. I am also feeling rather hormonal so that doesn’t help. Also it is 5.30pm now I am done for the day. We get over a bridge and see angler access. Sliding under the bridge we find a spot to pitch. Haven’t slept under a bridge yet, now I feel proper homeless. Exhausted with sandflies galore we have a quick wash and I have more of a cry. This time because I can’t get the sand off my clean feet easily before getting in the tent lol. So all in all we did 10.1km today. We planned this walk would take us 3 days and because we had some help from Graeme it took 2.

We got up early but took a bit to get moving. A terrible sleep with a noisy neighbour talking all night. Heading north we follow the road and the river until we hit Akatarawa River then follow. We get 2km in and have a rest mentally Rowan is finding it hard. I am okay but I wish I could amputate my little toe. Off we go again and it is not long before the rain hits. We stop at Karapoti Park for some lunch and find a spot under a tree. Then we carry on as the rain gets heavier and heavier. Both of us are on high alert as it is a narrow road and very windy. Cars are used to seeing cyclists but we make sure we are visible and swap sides constantly. Our next stop is Jock Atkins Waterfall, we don’t quite make it. A local man Graeme pulls over and offers a ride. We are 8km in with 7km to go with the rain expecting to get worse. We gladly take the ride, not cheating because we didn’t hitch. The next 7km of road is a lot more narrow, in some parts just 1 car going past. He shows us where there was an accident 2 days ago where the car flipped. A couple of boys testing out their skills by the sounds of it. We tell him not to worry about taking us all the way but he insists that he only lives a kilometre away from Clouston Park. Very thankful we head off into the park to find a spot to set up. Once set up we head into the river for a wash. It is really cold, much colder than yesterday. I can’t get in properly and I just stay in up to my knees. In our little palace we get dry and comfortable. The rest of the afternoon and evening I am very thankful for my cozy tent.

Wednesday – we call the doctor and pharmacy first to make sure all is in order before walking into town. We head off down river and bump into some locals and a fly fisherman. Thirty minutes later with a close catch from the fisherman we head into town. The walk is really nice and the water is much nicer further up.

Along the way we find some yummy blackberries. We get into town and first things first get the pills. Then we head to the warehouse for some underwear for Rowan. I am well overdue my 6 monthly blood test. The wait it long, an hour but it needs to be done. We go to the Asian supermarket and realise we have done over 10,000 steps, so much for a rest day. Rowan is struggling with sleep and is really tired. I am finding my small toe extremely painful. We make the decision to have a real zero day tomorrow. This way we can have an early start and make a day of it!

Thursday – I am up early, most of the camp is asleep. Rowan wakes fairly early too and we have a chill morning with some eggs for breakfast. We head down the the river and spend a long time there. Rowan fishes and I read my book. No luck with the trout but not surprising when we have a spin rod not a fly rod. The water is cold but it is really nice and we enjoy a swim. We eventually get hungry and head back to the campground.

After lunch we get a couple of jobs done. I have a fair bit of sewing to do, I take up my dungarees, they are way too long. I also fix up the tent with some minor seams and Rowan’s dungarees also need a little love. Rowan cleans out his water bladder which has grown some gross friends while it wasn’t is use in Australia. It takes him ages to clear it all out. By the time we do all that and have an hour long conversation with Eddy it is time for dinner. It is amazing how fast the time flies.

Our stealth camping went well! If anyone caught us they didn’t say anything. Today we are on a mission there are a few things we need to do. It is a pretty hot sunny day which is not nice. Both of us are not as tired as yesterday but the heat sure hits you. My blisters are getting bad so every step is painful. We meet a lovely lady and she tells us there is a camping ground on our way out of town. Perfect, I thought we would be hiding out again tonight. First stop is the pharmacy for Rowan’s pills. We called yesterday both the pharmacy and his doctors to make sure it will be ready. Well we get there and only one script was written for his ADHD meds but none of his other 3 have been sent. Incredibly frustrating the pharmacist calls the doctors and ends up passing over the phone. Rowan’s doctor has gone for the day and won’t be back till tomorrow. We try to get one of the other doctors to send them but they say no it has to be his doctor. The pills are for sleeping and for his blood pressure. Unlike his ADHD meds which are restricted and hard to get. Annoyingly we won’t be carrying on tomorrow we will need to sort that out before we continue.

On the bright side we can have an easy day tomorrow and hopefully be all sorted. Next we head to subway for lunch. Then off to the supermarket as we may as well have a fresh dinner with vegetables. We land on chicken tacos with lots of fresh coriander! Next we head to Specsavers to get my glasses adjusted. We do a little op shopping along the way, don’t worry we didn’t get anything. 3km to the campground and we are both tired, Rowan is frustrated. I have the idea to catch a bus and we will walk in tomorrow so we haven’t not done the 3km. We gladly hop on the air conditioned bus. The driver is chatty and the ride goes by fast. Finally at the campground we get the tent pitched and get some water. We are both dehydrated.

I am hoping it doesn’t take long to sort the pills tomorrow. I will try get my blood test done too.

A bit of a slow start, we had to chase up Rowan’s meds and make sure they will be able to be picked up at the pharmacy in Upper Hutt. We both had a terrible sleep, Rowan was up late and I kept waking up throughout the night. Feeling rather lethargic we get going, 500m in Rowan realises we left food in the fridge. I turn around and go back for it. We decide to walk along the river, it doesn’t have much shade which is unfortunate. About 5km in we are both really struggling, we hop on some Lime Scooters and continue on. Even on the scooters it is a struggle my arms and legs are hurting. A lunch stop and a few breaks help. At one point I go into a pot hole and come off the scooter, nothing hurt but my pride. The batteries die on the scooters and we walk the last few km to Trentham Memorial Park. Tonight we are being sneaky and stealth camping in the bush where you are not allowed. There is no campground so we don’t have a choice. We found a spot where we can camp and sat a bit further away and relaxed in the shade. It was 6pm before we both got really cold and I was almost asleep. There were less people around now so we snuck into the bush and set up as quietly as possible. No one has seen us. We had a quick bit of food a wash and into bed.

The day started good. We said goodbye to lovely Michaela & Gareth who I am sure are glad to have the house to themselves. Packed up making sure we had everything to go got our packs in and Rowan asked me “where are my clips.” I had them still packed far out, so packs off and time to rummage. I found them then had to repack both backpacks. Roughly a 4km walk to the ferry terminal which didn’t take us long but man I felt the heat. I thought we would be waiting over an hour as the timetable but we got on in about 10min which I was happy about. We did detour to Matiu Island to drop off and pick up some passengers.

Once off the ferry at Days Bay we walked a kilometre and found a nice pohutakawa and a chance to have some egg sandwiches. I also take off my boots and put blister plasters on, I lost all my hard skin in Australia. We follow the coastline all the way to the top 10 campground. The heat of the day really gets to us and we didn’t have enough water. 6 hours in full sun, even with sunblock and appropriate clothing takes it out of you. We have a few short rests after lunch and when we had 3km to go my feet really started hurting and Rowan’s ankle starts playing up. So we take it fairly easy as we don’t need him with an injury! We meet a lovely couple on the beach Ewan & Susanne and have a good chat. I really missed having chats to people we bump into. A kilometre to go and we find some lime scooters and we attempt to get them going but utterly fail. Wasting our time we give up and walk the last 1km arriving around 5pm. We do our usual pitch the tent and get our boots off. It will definitely take a few days to get into the swing of things again.

We arrived at our friends place early 1.30am, we went to every customs person to check various items. I realise I have left my phone in Gareth’s car and I have left my e-book on the plane yikes! Annoyingly I checked the pockets but I obviously didn’t check it properly. Not much I can do till tomorrow so I sleep.

Next morning I am up around 8am, everyone is still asleep so I read Rowan’s book, I don’t last long and I am fast asleep too. We wake up at 1pm! In fairness that is 11am Australia time but unheard of for me. Once I am up I stay up. Stunned that I have lost most of the day we rush out to do some jobs. The airport hotline isn’t answering messages and I don’t know if they have my kindle.

Gareth kindly drives us into the CBD and waits for us as we shop. First stop Bivouac I need to sort out my inflatable mat. Rowan got a cheap one in Australia to replace his one as it is an overseas purchase (none available in nz at the time) his will take a long time to replace. Also my merino camp pants are worn through and have holes. Icebreaker isn’t what it used to be! The team take both of our camp mats and said they will call sea to summit and see what they can do about Rowan’s one.

Next Macpac, my silk liner is already failing and another pair of Rowan’s underwear have failed. May he has big balls or something lol. Gareth kindly takes us to the airport where luckily there is on Quanta staff member lingering around so we corner her to see if they have my book. Unfortunately nothing is in the log book so she takes my name and number. By the time this is all done it is 5pm! So we head back to Michaela & Gareth’s place.

The next day I wake up at a more civilised hour and we relax and drink coffee. Bivouac call and our mats are sorted. I keep trying to ring the airport with no luck, then aha I finally get through. The lady chats to other staff and finds my book hooray! We steal Michaela’s car and head straight to the airport. I run in, check it is my kindle and I run back out. Success dopey has her book back. Now onto bivouac, we get two new mats. We need to pay $65 for an upgraded version for Rowan’s mat as they don’t import his exact one. We are more than fine with that. I get a new pack liner, just a cheap $6 one as we keep breaking the expensive ones. Rowan needs a sleeping bag since we sold my one in Australia. Unfortunately the one he wants isn’t on the shop floor in Dwights and we can’t hang around till Tuesday to get it. So off to Lower Hutt to a different macpac who can replace Rowan’s underwear and we get him two cheap sleeping bags. 1 down 1 synthetic. The synthetic one is more of a blanket than a bag. I am dubious as our track record with macpac is abysmal. However we will give it a go. Finally our gear is under control now to sort dinner and get some food for the walk tomorrow.

New years eve we stay up and watch the fireworks on the TV which is pretty spectacular, we can also hear it and see the sky light up from the balcony. I thought the 9pm kids show was pretty special but the midnight fireworks were incredible.

The next few weeks are a bit of a blur, Joanne (Rowan’s mum) is back from Europe. We run around looking for shoe laces and other odd things we need to get walking again. We give up trying to find 2m shoe laces and end up buying some rope from a hiking store. My sandals nearly break, another thing to go find. The list goes on.

We get a chance to do a little sightseeing. But I mostly spend these weeks getting Rowan’s business partner Eddy organised. There is a lot of maintenance and additions to do to his building in Labuan Bajo. I also take over social media adding another 6 accounts, 3 Facebook & 3 Instagrams. You may wonder why there is three different businesses well… Eddy’s Adventures is the tour guide business he has had for years. Eddy’s Place is what came of the backpackers when covid hit. Eddy needed income for his family so he set it up as a basic cafe for locals. Now we are getting the property ready to be run as a 7 day a week eatery. Eddy has some reliable staff to run it while he keeps up his tours. Right now is monsoon season so no tourists around. Anakarang is a charity Eddy started years ago which helps with marine life and the local children. I really enjoy doing the charity page.

Before we know it we have a few days before we leave. It is going to be a big change for Bette not having us around. I am looking forward to getting back to it. Our flight arrives in Wellington at 12am so really Friday rather than Thursday. We have a list of shops to get to gear to replace.