Start – Whakapapaiti Hut
Finish – National Park / Wellington
Daily Distance – 20 km + 5hr bus ride
TA Distance – off-trail
You know you’re back in civilization when the lady sitting across the aisle on the bus is knitting a sock.
Baby blue, although in what looks like a male size 9, so there really are more unanswered questions than
answers here. Anyway, other than surreptitiously admiring woolcraft, I have been indulging in my usual
pastime of bus window gazing. For a country that often feels so similar to home, we do share a queen, a
language and a love of pies after all, it often looks very different. Thick forests, mountains hazy in the
distance and rolling pasture land have been competing for prominence throughout the near 5 hours of this
journey. I particularly enjoy watching the shape of the land change. So much of the country is shaped
like my inept attempts at stuffing a duvet, less graceful curves, more improbable lumps and ridges. I do
miss the eccentric English place names though. You won’t find names that have evolved over hundreds of
years and innumerable pints of cyder in NZ. Venerable locales such as Farleigh Wallop, Frog Firle or
Chipping Hampden are sorely lacking. I suppose I should just be glad that there is no Southern
hemisphere version of Luton, one is quite enough thank you very much.
Anyway, I am really getting ahead of myself. Temperatures were so cold overnight that I very nearly had
to sacrifice my down jacket pillow and wear it for warmth. Fortunately the day dawned blessedly clear
and bright though. 12 hours without rain had restricted the Whakapapaiti river to a knee high, if bitingly
cold, level. With the river obstacle overcome, the walk out of the mountains was a pleasure. With plenty
of time before my bus was due to depart I made full use and frequently stopped for yet another final look
back at Mt Ruapehu basking in the morning light. A fitting final day of my TA Christmas holiday.
One bus ride and 1 1/2 socks later I stepped off the bus in Wellington. I remembered liking the city when
I visited many years ago and initial impressions are that I will feel the same this time around. Having
checked into the hostel the remainder of the evening has been spent drinking wine, playing pool and
listening to another resident playing guitar with my dorm mate Laura, an interior designer and fellow late
travel addict from Vancouver. A busy day!
