14th Nov, Te Araroa 44
Leaving behind Waihaha hut with the plan to walk 20km for the day and use the Alpine hut at the 1020km marker, that we found on the map so that would mean it would be only one km from the farm road where this would lead us down towards Taumarunui.
At times, there’s just no trail to follow
Problem was that with the GPS on my phone, we couldn’t find the hut or any evidence of one being there in the first place. So we carried on in the rain and exited the forest and entered farm land. being 6 oclock I was keen to find a place to camp for the night, there were a couple of spots but they were to exposed where local traffic would see us and besides Eunhwa was keen to keep going and find a better spot.
Waihaha hut, where we stayed last night, the night of the big earthquake in Kaikoura, South Island. 7.8 magnitude
Lunch break at Hauhungaroa hut
We walked along the gravel road passing an hold hut and through the rain we could see a farmer off loading his supplies from the back of the truck and not long after that he approach the same gate we were about the pass through. Eunhwa was quick enough and asked if he could give us a lift which he was happy to as long as we were happy to sit at the back of the truck on the tray where we would be exposed to the weather. Naturally we didn’t mind as we were wet anyway and if this gets us to a place to pitch our tent the the night, all the better. The road was rough and with a slippy wooden deck that had fencing wire, chemical spray and our backpacks, we were getting thrown all over the place as we tried our best to steady ourselves.
The 1,000km point. 2,000 kms to go.
The problem we had now was to find a spot to pitch our tent for the night and as soon at the farmer was going to stop and drop us off, I was going to ask him where we could call home for the night.
He finally stopped, and said he had to drop a few things off at his home that were on his front seat, then offered a lift into town, Taumarunui, naturally we accepted and jumped into the the front seat and within 15 minutes or so he dropped us off outside McDonald’s where it was still raining.
By now it was 8:30 in the evening and it was cold and wet out side and I was hungry for a big meal. We staried in McDonald’s for about an hour making a mess with our muddy boots which I felt guilty about and asked about where the closest camp site was, it was 4km out of town which ment a one hour walk along the main road.
Just as we were walking out and passed the service station, a car pulled over with two young ladies and asked us if we wanted a lift to the camp site. We agreed and within an hour we booked ourselves into a cabin and with the heater going on full, showered and into dry clothes, we started to relaxing and make our plans for tomorrow.