• Te Araroa Day 59
• Rest day – no buses or trains to Whanganui today

Why am I waiting a day to catch a bus? Well… as you’ll know by now Te Araroa occasionally includes parts of the trail that aren’t walkable. After taking in the iconic Tongariro Crossing, it heads off towards a ‘Great Walk’ – except the Whanganui River Journey isn’t a walk of course! A popular canoe or kayak trip, it isn’t possible to do the trip alone for safety reasons. My adventurous brother-in-law had really hoped to come along but in the end the logistics and little nephew being less than a year old proved too tricky. There are several operators who will tack solo travellers onto other groups who don’t mind company, but to be honest by this stage I just couldn’t bring myself to play the random lottery. It looks like an awesome journey, that I’m looking forward to doing in warmer weather with friends or family in the future. National Park is the easiest place to jump off the trail before the river section, and skip ahead to Whanganui to pick up the trail again. So I was resting up here for a day, until the next Intercity bus was scheduled.

The day started ok, enjoying an unfamiliar lie in, complete with Wi-Fi and power. National Park even had 2 Degrees reception so it was great to catch up on the phone with my friend, eating chocolate and watching the rain outside. I’m not sure whether it was bad posture, dehydration, or from hitting my head but by midday I really wasn’t feeling good and had a bad headache. I couldn’t find a lump or bruise, but my head was pretty sore to touch where I smashed into the tree. Eating 6 pieces of toast and Nutella didn’t seem to help, but did show how much my appetite has grown.

While I was eating a guy who lived at the backpackers came over to talk. He was from nearby Taumaranui where he’d grown up and gone to school, and then got a job in forestry. It had been tough work, and he’d lost the job in the end and now worked in a nearby water bottling plant. He mentioned some awful health and safety stuff – like his workmate falling off the forklift prongs from a height, and that job sounded pretty hard too. I was grumpy when he came over to chat, but by the end of the brief encounter I was left very much reminded that the cards we get dealt in life can be so vastly different. I thought about the childhood I’d had, how lucky I’d been in so many ways, and that I was here doing something frivolous like walking Te Araroa while other young people are just battling to hold down a job. It was eye opening.

I spent the afternoon researching the next section of the track from Whanganui to Palmerston North. This went well – after an hour I’d decided there was no way I wanted to do it!! My worried Mum asked if I was really sure, no doubt remembering how annoyed I’d been with myself after skipping the short chunk after Auckland. However, amongst the three blogs I generally relied on there was little to feel positive about – a tricky tidal river mouth crossing that local people thought was dangerous, with the alternative being to just walk longer along a busy State Highway 3! My favourite….Then there was mention of ‘almost being ambushed and stampeded by a rakish group of steers’ which upon much zooming of the map revealed yet another farm track with no other way around it. Add in a ton of busy road walking and nope, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. In desperation I checked the cycle route of Tour Aotearoa and found it took a quite different route, which someone wrote was a highlight of their whole trip! Quite different to the Te Araroa section which I think is described as the ‘most skipped section’ of the whole trail. I told myself if I was coming back to do the river I might as well bring a bike and do the cycle route. Whether I was just trying to make myself feel better, or I actually will do this remains to be seen… For the time being, it was time to book another bus to Palmy.

So, I’m now taking applications from anyone who’d like to join me on the Whanganui River Journey at some point in the future – maybe next summer? I’ll be considering selections based on what banter you can offer, the snacks and food you might bring, writing skills (e.g. could you guest blog so I can take a break?), and definitely your swimming ability because mine isn’t super flash! Do comment below if you’re keen 😂

P.S. – Sunglasses update: after submitting my warranty claim yesterday, I was really impressed that Sungod had accepted it and a new replacement frame was already on the way to NZ via DHL by the time I’d woken up this morning. Kudos! Also as an aside – I did try to duct tape the frame back together, but alas it didn’t do the job and they wouldn’t stay on my face.