day 62 – Boxing Day Sally told us we had to stay until the leftovers were finished, so with Malween’s knee and Holger’s ankle still not 100% and food to eat we decided to stay another day. For the most part we just hung out and ate a lot… again. John and Sally grilled sausages […]
No new walkers came into camp today. John and Sally cooked a ham and turkey and everyone made a dish for the Christmas feast! We sat around eating and drinking all day. I’m very thankful for our generous hosts. Merry Christmas!
The hike down from Te Matawai hut was easier than I expected, we heard it would be muddy and steep, maybe it was just our expectations, but it wasn’t that steep and was only muddy in a few sections. It’s probably for the best as Malween’s knee was really hurting. We are spending Christmas with […]
The trail from the Nichols hut to Pukematawai (mountain) was described by the other hikers as a lot of little ups and downs but very tiring. I don’t know why they said little ups and downs, they felt like solid ups and downs to me, but it certainly was tiring. We only hiked around 2 […]
Malween and I woke up and almost immediately took the wrong trail from the hut, but we realized it rather quickly and got back to the trail. Then the trail started climbing a bit. After a little while I started thinking that something was off, there was supposed to be a river crossing and we […]
It’s called a flip flop when you’re thru hiking one direction and then change direction, often it’s because of weather or timing. A good example of this is AT hikers when hiking north and it doesn’t look like they’ll get to Katahdin before the park closes, often will get a ride to Katahdin while it’s […]
The forecast was really bad, heavy rain, snow at higher elevations, and lots of wind, the worst of the weather was supposed to be in the am, so we considered leaving late and just dealing with it, but that left us getting out of the woods on Christmas Eve with no idea where we would […]
I woke up at 4 something, early even for me, so I made coffee and hung out. Malween woke up and packed up real quick so we left on the early side. After an hour of walking and talking about literature and philosophy, Malween realized he forgot his pack cover at the hut, so he […]
The family we stayed with gave us a ride to the trail head so we didn’t have to walk the road sections. There was rain. A lot of rain. We got to a shelter and there was a couple there who decided to take a zero at the cabin. We kept moving, mostly just to […]
I stayed at Ariki backpackers, there are two bars downstairs, one was doing karaoke until at least 2 am. I did not sleep well. Of course the surf looks crappy now, so it doesn’t look like I’m going to get out, I probably should have stayed on the mountain, but it was worth the shot. […]