It was a great night's sleep in Sharon's garage. There was no rush to get up - we needed to wait for Karen at Taumarunui Canoes to check the weather report and make a call about whether our river trip would be happening. Sharon invited us in for breakfast at 7:30am - cocoa pops, toast and coffee. She is a lovely down-to-earth lady, still recovering from a stroke last year, and looking after the passing hordes of TA hikers in the meantime. She is getting married to her partner Roger in April - we were all invited to the wedding, if we happened to be back in the area!
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Happy campers at breakfast: Sharon (trail angel), Lynne, Chris, Shaz, Bex and Stuart
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| On display in our TA shed |
After a lot of waiting, we finally heard from Taumarunui Canoes at 10:30am - the river trip is on! Barring last minute bad weather tomorrow, of course. The plan is that we will hike to the river today (no cell reception there), and tomorrow morning will be met with either a bunch of canoes to start our trip, or a bus to take us back to Taumarunui.
Today was a rather boring road walk on gravel roads, to Whakahoro (population: 8) at the edge of the river. It was very hard to believe this was actually my last full day hike of this trip! I was walking along with Bex for the first 90 minutes - which is the longest I've ever hiked on the TA in the company of anyone else. I must admit, it makes a change from the solo hiking I've done up until now, and chatting certainly does help to pass the time and take my mind off the boredom of roads and the ache in my feet.
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| Ruby the fox terrier following us down the TA (to the sound of Sharon yelling “come here Ruby you little shit!”) |
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| Country roads |
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| Stopping for a snack in the rain, with Shaz, Stuart and Bex |
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| Getting a bit more remote… |
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| More country roads… |
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| …following a tributary of the Whanganui River |
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| Whakahoro. Blink and you’ll miss it |
There is nothing in Whakahoro, apart from the DOC campsite and bunkhouse (10 beds), and a cafe (closed). I was glad to finally get there, knowing I'd be able to rest my aching feet for the last 5 days of this trip. It was my last dehydrated meal (spag bol) for dinner, and an early night. The river awaits tomorrow (hopefully)!
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