Start – Havelock
Finish – Pelorus Bridge Campground Daily Distance – 21 km
TA Distance – 1839 km
My latest trail start so far today. It was an unprecedented 09:30 by the time I eventually finished my
second breakfast of hot, buttered scone and mosied on out of town. Much of this uncharacteristic lateness
can be attributed to me anxiously checking weather reports and debating whether to attempt the
Richmond crossing or to try and arrange an alternative plan. There is a band of fairly heavy rain bearing
down on NZ and it is predicted to hit this area in the next few days. This could potentially make some
stream crossings too dangerous to attempt, so many people have diverted to do other activities or are
waiting out the weather in town until the middle of next week (it is Sunday today). In the end I decided to
just pack enough food to allow for one day stuck in a hut and make a judgement call on river crossings
down the line. My plan may work, or I may have to abort and retry the section another time, but I would
rather try and fail than sit in town waiting for better weather. When I did eventually depart Havelock it
was with the sun on my back, the open road before me and a pleasant surprise that my food stuffed bag
doesn’t actually feel as heavy as I feared. Still, a kilogram of cheese is always going to make the pace a
little slower, but you can’t put a price on dairy based happiness. There isn’t much to say about the walking
today. It was mainly rural road walking with a few km of farmland mixed in. I did meet Aly (Canada),
Matt (US), Mika (Germany) and a Swedish couple whose names I didn’t catch along the road, so have had
company at camp tonight. The Pelorus bridge camp is unusually lovely for a DOC site, with showers, a
kitchen and a rather cold river to swim in. Unfortunately it also boasts the most aggressive packs of
sandflies to date, so swim time was unfortunately short lived. As for my attempts to outwit them by
covering up all but my face. Well, lets just say they have no scruples about swarming in a direct line for
your face. I feel the coming days will see me get through a lot of repellent…
