Start – Otorohanga
Finish – Te Kuiti (Casara Mesa backpackers)
Daily Distance – 0 km
TA Distance – 913 km
After the horror show of day 39, yesterday and today have been deemed rest days to get back to the trail,
rest tired feet and do a few short walks to make up for the kms missed from Waitomo to Te Kuiti.
The day began with a bus from Otorohanga to Te Kuiti to get back on trail. While waiting around for the
bus I treated myself to my first trail haircut, so am looking pleasingly less vagranty now.
Te Kuiti is a nice enough little town and the Casara Mesa backpackers is an oasis of tranquility 3km
outside of town. I think it’s typically somewhat more tranquil, but after days of no tenants, yesterday 12
hikers, including myself, descended en masse. It has acquired an ambience that is half American
university frat house and half bohemian country retreat. It’s a friendly group consisting of Australians,
Germans, Dutch, French and English. Discovering a VHS machine was of some confusion to the younger
members of the group, but after a demonstration, the magic box has provided a high degree of
amusement. Last night featured too much beer/wine and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which was
about as odd as I expected.
Today has been more productive than yesterday. It has been spent resupplying on food for the next 7
days, going to the post office and the customarily time consuming walk planning. Since Auckland I have
been carrying 2 pairs of shoes, but only really need 1, so have posted the second pair to Wellington. I’ll
pick them up when I reach there and either send them ahead again or retire the pair I’m wearing now. My
other item of mail was sending my lovely 2 person tent back to Auckland to stay with Tim. Given the
number of hours I spend in the tent vs carrying it I have decided to downsize to a 1 person tent and have a
lighter rucksack. It feels like I’ve changed so much of my gear since arriving, which is annoying, but
900km of walking has really served to change my perspective on what is important. Between the tent and
the shoes my rucksack should be in the region of 1.5kg lighter. This doesn’t sound like a lot, but as the
days, kms and bodily wear mount up it seems worth having. The next town is Taumarunui in 7-8 days.
