By Elliot
Distance: 44km (by canoe)
When I awoke this morning and stepped out of the tent, I looked to my left. I had not dreamed it. The massive tent was still there.
There is a clear difference between people who are camping as a short trip, and TA walkers. This morning we were the first ones to leave the campsite. When there are other TA walkers around, that never happens. Everyone gets up so early, and packs up so quick such that we are often some of the last walkers to leave a campsite.
We spent the first half of the day debating whether we should go see the Bridge to Nowhere. This is a bridge that was built in the 1930s, just as the farms it led to were being abandoned. Neither of us was particularly excited about it, and we had many more kilometres of canoeing to go, but in the end we decided to go see it, to get a break from canoeing (it was a 5km-ish walk to the bridge from the river).
As we were tying up our boat and trying to get our shoes out of the barrels they were in, a jet boat with maybe 2 dozen people appeared. Our canoe was in the spot they planned to use to disembark. Ruth handled it like a pro, managing to get the shoes out of the barrels, resealing them and moving the canoe elsewhere as all those other people looked on.
Anyways, we got to the bridge to nowhere and it was exactly what we expected.
On the bridge were two cyclists, and as we approached them, one of them looked familiar. Ruth was the first to place him: he was the same French bike packer we met at the Mangawhai Heads holiday park over a month ago! The Bridge to Nowhere is on a cycle path and I guess he’s also heading south now, as opposed to when we first met him and he was going North. We wished him well and told him that we will see him again on the South Island.
We still had a lot to paddle in the afternoon, and the sun shining directly on us didn’t help. We were feeling pretty tired and lethargic at points. But our hard work was richly rewarded. Whereas yesterday the campsite was packed, today we are the only ones here!
