Start – TA km 483 (past Pakiri)
Finish – TA km 504 (Dome forest)
Daily Distance – 21km
TA Distance – 504 km
I have discovered this past month that hiking buddies serve all manner of useful roles on a long trail such
as this. From sharing jokes (not to mention wine), singing songs, trading stories of home and pointing out
beautiful sights that you may have otherwise missed, the uses are many and varied. Perhaps the greatest
and most often overlooked gift though is the truly vital job of clearing spider webs from between trees in
the bush. Somehow the spiders in NZ have engineered their webs to be invisible up until the point they
impact your (or lets be honest, preferably your hiking buddy’s) face. I don’t know how they do it, but I do
know it’s darned difficult doing the “I just walked through a spider web, get it off, get it off!” dance when
walking through forests filled with enough muddy roots to deliver a lifetime of slips, trips and falls
compensation.
Today was a sad day in part. Owing to an increasingly broken tent Martina has had to hitch ahead to
Auckland. The original plan was to hike back to Auckland, celebrate with wine and a customary box of
chocolate fingers and go our separate ways from there; her to the South island and me to continue the
slow march South. Having walked together most days since our chance meeting en route to Cape Reinga
it was sad to bring the end forward, but life and poorly constructed tent poles make a mockery of even the
best laid plans. Having both set out fully expecting to walk this trail solo it has been a real unexpected
pleasure to find a good friend to share almost 500km of the ups, downs and general sillyness of it with.
Still, everyone has their own path to follow though and mine has 100km needing to be walked before I
reach Auckland. Despite only covering a relatively modest 21km today it was a real tough slog through
bush for almost all of it. Fortunately my spirits were maintained by thoughts of the cafe at the other side
of the forest, where I would treat myself to coffee and cake if only I could get there before closing time.
My walking being fueled by a desire for caffeine and pudding seems to be becoming something of a
theme. Fortunately, unlike “the race to the dairy” (Day 9 – Raetea Forest), “canter to the cafe” was a
resounding success! So much so that I may have gone a little overboard when ordering. In my defense I
had ran out of water an hour before, so was really thirsty, plus (and possibly more to the point) nobody
has ever offered to serve me coffee in a bowl before, so I felt compelled to try it out. Of course, with the
benefit of hindsight, consuming a bowl of coffee at half 4 in the afternoon wasn’t an entirely sensible idea
as it’s now midnight and I’m feeling like I could jog the next 50km before sleep. Totally worth it though!
