Start – Waipapakauri Holiday Park
Finish – Ahipara Holiday Park
Daily Distance – 14km
TA Distance – 101km
Another short day today, the 100km point reached and a welcome first return to civilization. I’m planning
on taking a rest day tomorrow to recover before tackling the forest section too. The last few days have
been gentler than I had originally planned, but pushing out the kilometres would really just have been an
exercise in pride. Already people are taking weeks off the trail to recover from injuries sustained by
pushing too hard, so having survived the beach without too many issues I’m happy with my relatively
slow pace.
This afternoon was spent browsing supermarket shelves with rapturous delight and getting a little giggly
drinking large coffees in Kaitia with a bunch of the other walkers who have been keeping the same pace
as me. After a small cock-up with a non-appearing bus, which resulted in us loitering around outside a
public toilet like a group of well provisioned hobos, we returned to camp and feasting commenced.
Half of the group that has coalesced over these first few days are pushing on tomorrow, so it was nice to
send them off with food, wine and heartfelt best wishes. Hopefully we will meet again farther down the
trail.
Highlight if the day – Fresh fruit and vegetables. Oh and wine.
