• Te Araroa Day 41
• Ngāruawāhia to Hamilton – 24 km in 2 hours 30 minutes
• TA ice cream count: 11

I packed up and cruised out of the campground, stopping for a long chat with one of the locals who’d lived in Christchurch pre-quake and done lots of tramping in the Arthur’s Pass area. It’s amazing how just one conversation can lift the spirits. The campground didn’t have recycling but I was glad to find glass recycling in town for the bottle I couldn’t bring myself to throw in the rubbish. After taking advantage of the public library computers and catching up on the blog writing, I caught the bus to Ngāruawāhia again. Today nobody was wearing a mask 😂

Ngāruawāhia seemed to have more going on than I expected, and I found a cool cafe for lunch. Then I made my way around to The Point Reserve again to wait for my bike to be dropped off, and got through a lot more blogging. It was a great spot to sit and relax…

Dan from River Riders was local and I learned more about the popular Hakarimata steps from him. He said Te Awa cycle way had also been embraced by the community with lots of people using it for exercise, as well as commuting to Hamilton. Dan kindly swapped my pack for a bike, and I excitedly jumped on. It felt amazing to be pedalling after such a lot of walking, and travelling much faster than 5 or 6 kilometres an hour!

It was a beautiful cycle path, with information boards along the way. I didn’t stop to read many because I was enjoying cycling so much, however I did read that restoring the health of the Waikato River was now an important shared goal, and written into legislation. Later I did see two people floating/swimming in it so I guess it can’t be that bad?? LAWA is inconclusive.

Closer to Hamilton the path changed into more of an existing walkway. The boardwalk part through ferns was shaded and cool, and I had to check the map to make sure I didn’t sail past the bike depot. It was only a short distance uphill, on the main drag. I reluctantly handed in the bike and picked up my pack. I’m so glad I did this leg on a bike. It would have been a quite nice walk, but my feet would have got sore towards the end and I think it would have dragged a bit. If only I could cycle more of this journey… I also realised the Stillwater road would be fine on a bike. Hmm maybe me and one of my bikes can return in the future?

I had booked a motel for the night since the holiday park is out in the wops here. It was 1.3km from the bike shop, so reasonably central. The man at the check in desk handed over my resupply box and said he’d just need my car number plate 😂 He was really interested in my trip though. The motel was really modern and great value though – highly recommend Arena Court Motel if you’re in Hamilton.

I decided I’d have a go at hand washing lottery – brave at 5pm, hopefully it’ll be dry tomorrow. Then I walked back into town for a yummy Vietnamese dinner, followed by a blackberry, sage and honey flavoured ice cream from Duck Island. Apparently they won an award for their ‘fairy bread’ flavour which I couldn’t see, but then heard someone else order. Sadly I was stuffed, so I added returning to Hamilton for fairy bread ice cream to my to-do list.

The other really lucky thing that happened today was the sports massage contact I’d got from athletics connections is able to fit me in tomorrow morning! I’d almost given up on being able to fit this in, and had heard he was usually really booked up, so felt super lucky. Another boost on a day that had already been pretty good.

I felt relieved I was feeling more positive and regained some perspective today… I think I fell victim to googling too much of the trail, too far ahead in recent days and only increased my anxiety and apprehension. I can see I need to stay in the moment (i.e. the current day and next day) as much as logistics allow, and keep believing I can do it. This is quite a challenge though as I like to be prepared, and feel I’m responsible for my safety which requires having done some degree of research.

Today I also thought of all the people who supported me in so many ways, and realised I didn’t want to give up. Tomorrow after some errands and the massage, it’s onwards to Whatawhata!