Wasn't hungry this morning but forced down some porridge as I knew I'd need it. Packed up and was just about ready to go when I managed to topple over from a seated position and do my first turtle impression of the trip. Blurry-eyed Frenchies who had just got up and were breakfasting asked a little ironically "heavy pack?"
By just after 8am I headed off over Scott Point. The trail here follows an old quad bike track through low scrub and young manuka and is clearly marked. 4km brings you to a view and a series of steep steps down to 90 Mile Beach - Te Ara Wairua ('the Spirits' Pathway'). The spirits of the dead are said to travel up 90 Mile Beach to Cape Reinga where they descend the lone totara tree that stands there, into the water where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea, before setting off toward their ancestral home of Hawai'iki...kind of fitting then that I, one of the living, am making the journey in the opposite direction.
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| Nice patterns in the sand left by the retreating tide. |
I'm tiring quickly with the heavy pack (a thick dew overnight means the tent is wet and probably now over 4kg). Consequently am taking frequent 1-2 minute rest stops, which get more frequent as the day progresses. Probably also has something to do with how unfit I am and that I haven't trained for this at all. That means I'll only get better as I go on right?
Was pretty sure my tender foot pads had graduated to full on blisters, then when I moved off again after a lunch break I felt what I thought was my skin peeling off the sole of my feet. Not daring to look I pressed on until 2:30pm when the heat and the tiredness were really starting to get to me. I hiked a ways up into the dunes to rest awhile. Scorching in the sun and not unduly concerned about Alyse's ultimatum that I am not allowed tan lines at her wedding, I pitched the tent, to provide shade but also to dry it out. I had a nap, a snack and then saw to my feet. Happily it was only my sock delaminating from my foot that I had felt, but I was right about the blisters on the soles of my feet. Time to break out the hikers' wool!
Good news is the hikers' wool works like a charm, dialling the discomfort level down several notches as I set out again at 5pm and the cool of the fading afternoon. The more immediate problem has quickly became my left hip. What started as a twinge and intermittent ache in the morning progressed to an episodic pain in the afternoon that was perfectly in sync with every step I took with my left foot. It's right up in under my left buttock somewhere in close association with my hip joint so I guess it's a tendon or something of that sort. Problem is it's an awkward place to massage...so I am contenting myself with stretching, to little avail and only very short term relief.
I hobble-walked until 7pm, about five or six kilometres shy of the Bluff. In the fading light I slinked off into the dunes and found a nice little dip in the sand that I thought might mould to my body more like my mattress than a flat surface would. I pitched my tent over it and rammed the tent pegs home as hard as one can in sand (as the wind was rising). Had a super-quick boil up of a chicken curry pasta snack in the dusk among the tussock, and also a hot chocolate--it had been that sort of a day.
It was a relief to snuggle down into my sleeping bag...but feels more than a little bit icky being covered in sweat and sand. I miss my shower!
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