Day 17: Helena Bay to Whananaki (20km; 309km)

Woke up at 6:30 shortly before there was a loud clatter and caper in the hallway--Squeaky had caught a skink and brought it in through the cat flap. I rescues the slightly worse for wear but still living skink and took it back outside where it scuttles to safety under a wooden planter. Barry and Colleen were up by 7:30 so after packing up I went out to see if I could make myself useful...only to find Barry making poached eggs on toast in the kitchen. Yum!

We had a nice chat over breakfast, swapping stories about past pets and their antics. I helped Barry download plane tickets he and Collen had just bought using their air points (sorry I couldn't get the printer working guys!), before doing the dishes, packing up the last of my gear and hitting the trail. We managed to catch Pinky for a family photo and I left them my details should Barry and Colleen ever find their way down to my neck of the woods, so that I might one day return the wonderful kindness they've shown me.

The first part of the trail is a road walk that quickly turns into a gravel road that winds up through farmland for a few kilometres. The road is called Webb Rd, after the Webb family who have farmed the area for over 100 years. A farmer (who may have been one of the seen brothers?) drove past in a paddock at one point with two dogs running along beside him. He was driving a dark green land rover and watching it travelling along the lush green countryside between the trees it brought to mind a scene from "The Queen"...only the dogs were sheep dogs not corgis! I met up with the farmer as he came out of a gate further down and we had a chat about hikers passing through and the trail. Friendly chap (I never caught his name) as were Amy and Ringo the dogs, who were all wet from splashing through the stream.

Moving on I glimpsed a pair of hikers on the road above me and assumed they were Scott and Joanne, but they were a good 4km ahead so I had no chance of catching them. I headed on up the hill in low but continuous gear, actually quite enjoying the walk.

At the top of a ridge the trail branches off the road to follow an old 4WD now quad bike track as it rambles over low forested ridges. I felt a bit lightheaded walking up one of them, not sure why, but I sat I the shade for a wee bit and had a drink and a muesli bar and felt much better.

After a while the track diverts into the Onekainga Walking Track, which goes up, and then down, and then up, and then down again. It's quite steep in sections which is hard on the knees going down and on the legs in general (and lungs) going up. There's a bit in the trail notes where the DOC lands are described as "falling away to the south"...this is not overstating; the ground literally does fall away from the trail in places--the steepest I've seen since Raetea ridge walk. Looking down you suddenly realise there's nothing but a few trees between you and oblivion.

There's nice bush along the track. Talk manuka with a tree fern under storey at the start, with incoming totara, palms making an appearance in places, and a stand of young kauri toward the end. There's a stream crossing in between a steep 174m down and up where you cross four little incised streams, each flowing in different directions in the same valley; I never worked out if they were different streams converging, braids of the same stream or a single massively meandering channel...

The last two 2km of track drop steeply through farmland to the road. I stopped and had a boots-off-break at the last stile, just to bring my feet back to life enough to get the last few kms into Whananaki. Taking your boots off feels wonderful for your feet...so wonderful it compensates for the aweful smell! After two and a half weeks of walking, getting wet and never quite drying my boots positively reek...as do my socks.

I was sitting there, legs stretched out on the grass, feet upright when a bee did a low fly-by. Just as it buzzed over my toes it suddenly dropped out of the air and struggled to gain purchase on a blade of grass nearby, forcing me to wonder if my socks really smell so bad that they're making bees drop out of the sky...?!

After about fifteen minutes I packed up and rebooted and made off...careful not to tread in the unfortunate bee who for whatever reason had not quite recovered.

I missed the turn off to the Whananaki Estuary walk and consequently arrived at the Whananki Holiday Park via the road. The wonderfully friendly and accommodating lady there, Tracey, set me up with a bed (with a pillow, yay!) in a room to myself, plus a towel, for a mere $25 (as the room had not been fully serviced). Fantastic! With the prospect of heavy rain coming I was very happy to be indoors.

In the kitchen I met Mary and Tony; they're a couple from the UK who have come to do Te Araroa. There was no sign of Scott and Joanne so it must have been these two I saw on Webb Rd. We chatted for a little before I set off to shower and see to my extremely sore feet (so sore I got out of the shower and had to sit down for a good ten minutes before I trusted them to be stood on again). Happily massage and foot balm did the trick and I was able to hobble back out to the common area beside the kitchen (a series of outdoor picnic tables under cover). I put on water for tea in the kitchen and was chatting to Mary and Tony when who should arrive but Jogger Man! His real name is Jonty and he's a fellow Kiwi, from Nelson. He's been having trouble with his ankle (apparently it was the size of a grapefruit a couple of days ago) so has been taking it slowly for the past few days. An hour or so later Scott and Joanne arrived as well. It turns out they had been behind me at the Russell Firest Shelter, not arriving there until 1pm. There they had met Nary and Tony, who must have overtaken me early this morning before I set out (they start walking by 6:30am each day!). It's funny how thru-hiking you become this little mobile community which every now and then clusters in the same spot at the same time. Here we are in Whananki, the six of us forming quite the hiker family!

The shop was shut by the time I arrived (apparently the shop lady is a bit gruff too) so it was pasta snack for dinner, supplemented with fresh spinach and silverbeet from Tracey's vege patch. Then I settled down to sleep in a comfy bed, awaiting the bad weather that's supposed to be coming tomorrow...