Day 78: Waikanae to Paekākāriki (23km, 6.5 hours)

I was the only person at River Pa last night. It feels much lonelier being by yourself in a big hall than it does in a small tent.

No hikers came down from the ranges yesterday. I think the group that were here the night before consisted of a few who had waited several days in Levin for a window of  3-4 days of good weather, plus a few who just got lucky. They would have started their crossing 2 days before I arrived at the Makahika OPC. But since then I suspect bad weather was looming and no-one else has made the attempt.

The number of TA hikers in general seems to have dropped off noticeably too, just before I started hiking on December 27. Maybe many took a break over Christmas. Also the local iwi have closed the Whanganui river for a while while they hold their annual waka pilgrimage down it, so maybe lots of TA’s are being held up by that. Either way, it’s been very quiet.

At 7:30am I said goodbye to the local dogs (Daisy, George and little Buddy), and I was off. As I said to Cassie, and as I’ve mentioned before, for me the TA is a succession of goodbyes. I know the end is only a few days away. So, goodbye, River Pa.

I was thinking of the end of my TA as I started plodding along. Endings are hard, and my music choices reflected that. I tried Where Are We Now (Bowie again) and Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime (The Korgis again, though Beck did an excellent cover). But I settled on Preaching The End Of The World (Chris Cornell). Endings, and loneliness. It matched my mood.

The trail followed a river past Waikanae to the coast. A pleasant but uneventful amble. A lovely local called out from her balcony and threw me an apple as I was passing, which was much appreciated, and helped me out of my sombre mood. After a couple of hours I reached the coast and started along Paraparaumu beach, with views of Kapiti Island.

First view of Kapiti Island

Heading down Paraparaumu Beach

The beach was covered with thousands of little Portuguese man-of-war-like creatures, washed up recently, that popped loudly under my feet. 

It was market day in Paraparaumu as I passed on the beach. A good time to stop for brunch.

Market day. I haven’t seen so many people since Auckland!

10am pic: Brunch - beef roll and mocha 

Another hour and a half down the beach, the trail branched inland for a while.

Oops - closed due to erosion apparently. I have to take a detour.

Lovely view over Kapiti now

And lots of pōhutukawa in bloom!

The view from the coastal track was great - but I saw the tide was out and there was plenty of room on the beach, so I scrambled down a sand dune and walked for the last few kilometres along the sand.

Looking back over Kapiti as the cloud is burning off. Goodbye Kapiti!

I was at the Paekākāriki Holiday Park by about 2pm. Plenty of time to set up the tent by a little stream, have a shower, and explore town. The local bar had some good craft beers and was showing the Auckland tennis semifinals - how could I resist?

A nice hazy beer, and fried chicken at Finn’s Bar. Mmmmm!

By 7pm I was back in my tent and ready for bed. It will be a harder day tomorrow, over the Escarpment Trail. Definitely time for my beauty sleep.

My home tonight, by a little stream at the holiday park

Today’s route