I got up this morning, slightly stiff but not nearly as bad as I had feared. Long parts of my thigh and calf muscles I've never previously been aware of are a bit tight, most noticeably when walking on flat surfaces. I guess that's what comes from 36km of walking along roads when you're not used to it.
Despite my sore bits I slept well--and could happily have slept more! Once up I still hadn't decided whether it not to walk today or not. In case I did decide to walk the first thing I went to sort out was laundry. Unfortunately despite the sign saying it was supposed to be open by now the office was still locked up tight. A German guy in pyjamas holding his young baby son was standing in the yard, looking at a loss as what to do. He was after some eggs (they have hens here and you can buy fresh eggs), and like me couldn't really get on with his planned morning activities until the office opened.
Neither of us were game enough to hammer on the door so we wandered back to the campground, he to his campervan and me to the kitchen. Fortunately I didn't need eggs for my breakfast so I went and polished off the last of the ciabatta, cream cheese and salmon.
Taylor was already up and about, and all but ready to head into town, short of charging his phone. We began discussing options for the canoe trip.
Around 9am German Dad appeared, eggs in hand--he'd gone and woken up Phil and Helene. I dashed off to get change and powder for the washing machine and put every item of clothing I have except for my puffer jacket into the wash (the puffer jacket I would wear in the meantime, along with the loner beach towel--thank goodness it was a big one!).
Back to planning, we first spent a bit of time researching the different operators and what they offer (what did we do before mobile data?). Finding out costs and options is about the only thing I prefer to do by phone so in the end I rang a couple of outfits to get the required info.
While the official TA route has you walk into Mangapurua Landing, getting canoes delivered here requires them to be brought in by jet boat, making the exercise considerably more expensive. By comparison, entering the river further up the track at Whakahoro means the canoes can be brought in by road. For $250 Yeti tours would bring in canoes to Whakahoro and we can paddle them all the way to Whanganui. Also, if we could get to Ohakune befirehabd we could shop for luxuriously heavy food for the trip at the New World, and drop it off to them to bring in with the canoes. Sounded good to us. We hashed out a rough schedule for the next sections of walk in order to determine what day we should start down the river from Whakahoro. I erred on the side of caution as there are a couple of big days coming up and I'd like a day or two up my sleeve for rest or weather delay. Taylor didn't seem to mind this so we've settled on the 16th as a start date.
He soon set off into town to resupply and I agreed to meet him at the I-Site to confirm details and book the trip once I had slightly more than a puffer jacket and beach towel to wear.
While waiting on my laundry (it took two wash cycles; Phil took pity on me and didn't charge me for the soap powder) and hung out in the kitchen chatting to a guy named Matt. He's an Aussie (from Perth) out here cycling around New Zealand after having spent six months doing the same around Canada. Epic. He's taking a cruisy day today, having just done the Timber Trail that partly coincides with TA. He sat hand-making some presents for his family who, thanks to a flight shouted by a friend, he's going home to surprise for Christmas. He showed me some of his 'finds' from his travels, including a couple of things he's literally found along the side of the highway: an amethyst pendant on what looks like a silver chain, and a huge (and no doubt expensive) G-Shock wrist watch. Insane! Who drops this stuff?!
Matt's a guy with an obvious socio-environmental conscious; he's a near-vegetarian on the grounds that global meat production is unsustainable and a gross misuse of resources (we discussed the issue of grain-fed cattle). He also has a rather cool pair of sandals he calls his 'Jesus sandals' (and that's exactly what they look like) woven from fibre derived from recycled plastic bags. The upside of this is that when they wear somewhere you just put a lighter to them and melt them whole again (of course this will only go so far, but still).
Matt also needs to head into town to suss out some travel matters so after my laundry was finally washed and dried (ah! Clean clothes!) and I was able to dress more appropriately, we caught a lift into town with a friend of Phil's who was on his way back that way. On the road we passed a truck that had tried to go under the bridge and not quite met the 3.30m clearance criteria...ooch.
At the I-Site we caught up with Taylor who cheerfully proffered a list of how many days the canoe journey would take and all the overnight stops we should make along the way, including the number of kilometres between each one. Anyone would think the I-Site people had organised this trip before :)
It all looked good to me (and really, what do I know anyway?) so we went up to the desk and booked the trip, including the first three nights' accommodation as, although a water leg, the upper section of the Whanganui River is classified as a 'great walk'. All booked, Taylor got me to scribble on a map where I intended to be roughly each day between now and the trip in order to get to Whakahoro by the night of the 15th, so he could see what he needed to keep up with (not that I think 'keeping up' is going to be his problem. I rather fear he's going to have a day or two spare to burn...).
I suggested we all go out for lunch. The guys were keen but Matt had run into problems with a train he needed to book (there was no more room for bicycles) so Taylor and I went on ahead to scope out a likely spot to eat. We stopped at a couple of variety stores on the way as I need to get a new notebook for journal notes (I'm surprised the one has lasted this long given my, um, verbosity). I couldn't find a small light-weight notebook but did come away with a small Christmas decoration to affix to my pack; 'tis the season afterall.
Matt caught up with us outside a cafe but the boys weren't inspired by the menu. In the end we settled on a Thai place where it transpired I was the only one who actually ordered Thai food! The guys settled on a toasted sandwich and a bowl of wedges, respectively. Boys! I'll never understand them.
I happily hoed into a massive plate of a chicken and ginger noodle dish I had no idea how to pronounce but which tasted great as the guys discussed the legalisation of marijuana. Taylor's from the US where several states have already legalised it (we noticed as Mum's online subscriptions to gardening news feeds suddenly became awash with "how to grow your own marijuana") and Matt has spent loads of time in Canada where apparently recreational use is still illegal pretty much in name only, and pot can be readily acquired from dispensaries without prescription. Having never tried it myself (although I've probably second handed a couple of times) I had little to contribute other than my observation that it seems to polarise people into either the exceedingly chilled out (to the point of uselessness) category, or alternatively the exceedingly paranoid (and therefore slightly dangerous) category. The guys agreed that some people can't really handle it, but praised it's de-stressing properties. Matt's stance in particular is that marijuana has invaluable medicinal uses (his phrase "I stand by the plant" caught in my mind), and I had to concede that since things like morphine are legally prescribed for medical purposes I couldn't see why marijuana shouldn't be either. That said, I'm still against it becoming legal recreationally; personally I think this country has a big enough problem with alcohol abuse without throwing pot into the mix. And besides, with everyone getting legally high, the vast majority of people would never get anything done!
After lunch we headed over the road to New World where I managed to find a standard 3B1 notebook, got another ciabatta roll for dinner...and an orange chocolate muffin (I'm thru-hiking, I'm allowed!).
Everyone having organised or bought everything we needed we headed back through town and split up to try and hitch back out to the campground. Understandably Taylor didn't want to walk any further than necessary with his big pack so he stayed put whilst Matt and I kept walking. Once out of the main retail area Matt started putting his thumb out for passing cars. He assures me hitch-hiking is easy but I've never done it before and I watched his technique as I expect to have to do it myself before this trip is over (but for now I was happy to bludge off Matt's talent for it).
Whilst some might say all you have to do is stick your thumb out, I strongly suspect that how you present yourself in terms of body language dramatically influences your chances of catching a lift and by what type of people. If you look dishevelled and grumpy I suspect only a small number of open minded people would want to have you as a travelling companion (and then probably only because they take pity on you). By contrast, the upright and cheerful figure Matt presents as he flicks a thumb looks much more like someone who might be an interesting person to chat to to help break up the monotony of the next several kilometres of driving. He also looks people dead in the eye as they drive past, making him much more difficult to ignore, but his friendly face prevents the gaze from being threatening. Obviously I was watching a seasoned hitch-hiker in action and I'm not ashamed to say I took mental notes. Frankly I'm terrified of hitching, but if and when it comes to it, I definitely want to maximise my odds of a lift.
About a K or so out of town a young tourist couple pulled over and gave us a lift the last couple of Ks to the campground. Phew, my first piggy-back hitch-hike was a success!
Back at the campground we walked in to find Marie and Eddie seated at the picnic tables outside the kitchen; happy hellos all round, and introductions to those not previously acquainted. Anneli is also staying on as she needs to wait for the post office to open tomorrow in order to receive a parcel containing greatly needed new shoes. Lots of people in trail runners seem to be wearing their first pair out about now; Anneli, Taylor, and Andy had worn his out by Hamilton. I'm quietly stoked that my boots have developed nothing more than a few cracks as yet. I know it won't take much for cracks to become holes, but I live in hope that there's a lot of life in the old boots yet.
A couple of hours later Taylor showed up...Phil had passed him in town and given him a lift back to camp. I felt a bit guilty for having got back so quickly when he's waited so long, but Taylor felt guilty because he actually had no intention of staying at the campground tonight. He's instead going to stealth camp somewhere across the river. Most hikers I've met seem to chose stealth camping over campgrounds and hostels--it is after all free. Personally I like the peace of mind that comes with staying somewhere official, plus you most often have access to shower and kitchen facilities, plus there's the added bonus of finding interesting people to talk to. It's good for the mind and the body...but yes, bad for the bank balance (very bad!).
The campground filled up and by dinner time the kitchen was full with Matt, the four of us TA'ers, another French couple car camping and hiking around NZ, a German girl doing the same, and a retired guy from the UK, also car camping (he made the comment that while it is a good way to see NZ, you're not part of a community like you are if you're hiking or motorcycling, and I can see what he means. Sensing he was finding it a bit lonely I told him to nick a pair of boots and be an honorary hiker).
$1 bought me three fresh eggs which, scrambled and served on toasted ciabatta along with some spinach freshly picked from the garden and blanched, and a dash of salt and pepper sourced from the free food bin, made for a fresh and tasty dinner. After that I went to bed early but unintentionally stayed up late doing a blog entry...then lost it when my battery died...Grrr.
No comments:
Post a Comment