Day 4: Random Dune 2 to Hukatere (20km; 70km total)

Slept ok in my little sand crater; was out if the wind but I'm still not used to the hard ground (grown too soft!). Packed everything up and had breakfast before setting off into the wind once more. Another overcast day so at least it won't get too hot.

I was low on water (<1L) and planned to refill at the first stream...there had been quite a few up until now, but I was slightly concerned that on the map there were only little tiny ones for the next 30km--and they would most likely be dry.

After half an hour or so two people standing in the surf loomed out of the spray haze. Turns out they we're a local guy and a woofer surf casting for snapper. They offered me water and I happily took it, filling up 3.5 L from the sink in the back of their camper-car (where woofer #2 was sheltering from the wind). Bidding them good fishing and no longer anxious about water I strode off into the haze.

Parts of the beach where the dune-field is widest resemble a moonscape.

About 10am another hiker suddenly popped out of the dunes. He seemed surprised to see me. He took a second to gauge my pace, realised I was of the "ultra-slow" category rather than "ultra-light" like himself and we exchanged waves before he took off at a jog. Before long he'd jogged out if sight (and judging by his tracks he jogged on all day). I trudged in his wake and spent the next twenty minutes or so converting Elton John's "Rocket Man" to "Jogger Man".

Most of the morning I kept a good pace (for me!) and had only short stops as dune after dune slowly slid by and the surf kept on rolling. 10km down by 11:45...I should've known it was going to make the afternoon harder!

Museli bars for lunch just didn't match my porridge and hot chocolate (with a shot of condensed milk) and the afternoon got harder and harder. The last 3km were the hardest of all but at last a green flag in the dunes stood out like a beacon and told me I'd made it to Hukatere.

I wandered into Utea Park (right on the beach) and found a delightful little campground with tent spaces, little cabins and communal kitchen and bathroom facilities, lorded over by an enormous rheumy-eyed Arab bulldog called Cruise, and run by friendly Kiwis Paul and Tania, and currently also a woofer named Asayako(sp?). It's basic but comfortable and $15 got me a bed in a cabin out of the wind, and since it wasn't busy, me and the two other hikers each got a cabin to ourselves.

Asayako is from Japan where (I later found out) she used to be a kayak instructor. One hiker is a Belgian named Nathalie, who seems to have hiked most of NZ already, and the other is Niko, a Frenchman travelling NZ with his girlfriend  Usea(sp?), who's Czech. Niko spontaneously decided to do the trail and Usea is being his support crew, walking short sections and following by car. They've been here two days...and it's tempting: hot shower, soft mattress...AMAZING. But I've got a trail to walk (and my food won't last an extra day...)!