Distance: 14km

By Ruth

Today we had our most leisurely day yet, in terms of walking. Knowing this, we took it easy in the morning and didn’t rush to leave camp. As I am still on the mend from my little cold, I was very happy to have been able to sleep in until 6:30 this morning! We indulged in breakfast, tea, some chatting, and then eventually we were back on the beach, for the last time. As much as we suffered for parts of it, and it was pretty boring by the end, we were both feeling a bit nostalgic about our beach days coming to a close. I took some extra time to admire the seashells and other treasures that had washed ashore.

We even had a picnic lunch on the beach, despite being only 20 minutes away from a cafe with real food, in Ahipara.

From Ahipara we hitchhiked into Kaitaia with a couple of fishermen who dropped us right at the hostel. Even these guys knew how bad the beach is for causing blisters because one of them had apparently picked up multiple hikers on the beach itself who hitched a ride due to their blister pain!

Now we are at the hostel and the rest of the day we have been trying to figure out what we are going to do next. The next section of trail is currently not recommended to walk. There is a bypass route that we would take instead, but it involves a couple long distance days, and there is some heavy rain in the forecast over the next few days. So we need to decide what we want to do to avoid the possible sufferfest that that spells.

Whatever we decide, tomorrow is a rest day for us, so we have some time to think it over.