By Ruth
Since I know you are all on the edge of your seats wanting to find out what we decided to do with regards to the Tararua range, let me explain. We have decided to wait for the weather system to pass, which means spending at least three nights in the town of Levin.
Today we spent the morning relaxing at the Makahika Outdoor centre, before our hosts (two TA walkers who were house sitting for the actual home owners who were away on their Christmas holidays) drove us into town. I say relaxing, but it was not that easy. When you have momentum and have everything ready to head up into the mountains, and it’s a beautiful day at that, it’s tough to come screeching to a halt. But it felt like the best choice for us, given the weather prediction for the next three days just keeps getting worse: more rain and wind.
Levin is a nice little town, and we enjoyed going to a cafe for lunch and coffee. Then, we headed to the grocery store to get a ride from Donna – our trail angel host for the next few days – to her home a few kilometres north of the town. Not for the first time on this trip we found ourselves sitting outside of the New World waiting for a lift. This one has a nice view of the mountains in the distance.
There are four other TAs staying with Donna tonight. After a pretty long time with mostly just the two of us on trail, it is so nice to meet some new people and be able to trade trail (and non-trail) stories! We wanted to make dinner for our hosts, but they ate too early. So we took advantage of Donna’s well-equipped kitchen to make dinner for all the TAs. We may not be trail angels but we try to bring a bit of trail magic where we can.
Nobody else is planning to wait in Levin for the weather to pass. Some are skipping straight to Wellington and starting the South Island in the new year. Another is thinking of going down to Wellington and then walking this section in reverse (south to north). There are so many different ways to do the trail and it’s interesting to see what others are choosing.
Overall, it’s not ideal to have to wait for bad weather to pass. In some ways, it reminds me of our first week on trail, when we had to wait in Kaitaia for three days for a cyclone to move through. (Dedicated readers will remember our many visits to the Pak’n’Save there.) I feel like I’m in a better place now than I was then, with a bit more patience and less insecurity about the trail. It helps that we are staying with Donna and not in a hostel, and that Levin has a bit more going on than Kaitaia did. But this is just day one of waiting, we will see if I have a different tune in a few days!