Boy oh boy it was hard to get out of my bed this morning. After a lovely rest day, filled with long breakfasts, snoozes, washing and drying, and Indian dinners, it was time to stuff everything in the pack once again.
I felt rested. But this trail has been hard. Long distances between camps; more people to circumnavigate; hideously drenching downpours at the drop of a hat: mud, mud and more mud; sopping campsites. I’m still enjoying it. But it has certainly been a mission.
We bid farewell to the bach and headed across the road. Peter is destined to pick us up at 9am to ferry us across the bay to Marsden Port. We are staring out to sea, waiting for him, when we hear the putt putt putt of a motor. An old tractor is dragging a boat towards the water.
Peter and his wife explain that taking hikers across the bay is a hobby for them. They are headed out fishing after they drop us off. We enjoy the boat ride, finding out more about the foreboding looking Port on the other side as we go.
Once on the other side , we make haste. It’s almost 10am and we have another 32km to cover. We immediately take a wrong turn. Backtrack and start again. Wasted time.
We get back on track and it’s a good thing as the beach itself is beautiful. Aqualine water with a shell studded shore. We can see the dragon we conquered in the background. It feels pristine and beautiful. An expanse of beach well worth visiting.
We reach a tidal river at Ruakaka and face a physical challenge. The water flooding down to the sea is completely brown. A result of the heavy rains. There is no way of gauging the depth of the many rivulets we will need to cross to get to the other side. We probably should have taken a bit more time….but we didn’t. We walked around for a bit, picked a likely spot, and in we plunged. The water felt nice at first. Until it got higher and higher and higher. I could feel it lapping at my bag. “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!” We dragged ourselves out the other side. Poor Aubs realised the water had cascaded into the pouch holding his new phone (and his old one!). He turned his bag up and poured water out of his pouches. His phones were drenched. He was impressively stoic about it. I vowed not to look in my bags until we reached camp. It was quite a painful lesson.
We continued down the beach. Easy walking. Just a long way. Rain poured as we passed through Waipu, and again and again as we made our way to Waipu Cove. A large section of the track was roadside, and Saturday afternoon proved to be a very popular time for a drive. We were very glad to make it to camp.
Dinner was had overlooking the beach. A beautiful hot shower followed by a stroll through the caravan park finished off the evening. Bed by 8pm. The patter of rain started immediately, lulling me into a satisfied doze. They are all long days now until we get to Auckland.
Oh dear…. fungus must be starting to sprout! You’ll be thinking back fondly on the relatively DRY Heysen trail days, no water/mud crossings at all!
Hope Aubs was able to restore his new phone?? What an asset a bit of stoicism can be at times….
Lovely photos of the beach area with its speckled shells.
You can do it! Just 7-8 days to go! xx
Has NZ ever heard of a thing called a “bridge”? A very useful invention.
Aub could try putting his phone(s) in a sealed bag/container of white rice. It acts like a dehumidifier. It has worked for me a couple of times – takes a while though.