Days 62-66

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 for dinner. I’m gaining back all the weight I’ve lost!

Day 63

Said goodbyes, John gave us a lift into Levin and we started hitching to Wellington. It didn’t take too long to grab a ride, funny enough one of the women who picked us up is moving to Boston to work at BU, small world.

There are lots of other hikers in Wellington, I’ve run into all sorts of people I know including Franzi who I started the trail with and haven’t seen since Kerikeri.

Day 64

Woke up and took a walk around town, it’s cute and small even compared to Boston.

Day 65

The trail goes south of Wellington even though we have to come back to catch the ferry from town, but there are some decent views of the city. Although it’s nice, I feel similarly to when I was hiking outside of Auckland. It’s just kind of walking in the suburbs.

Day 66

Preparing for the South Island, lots of planning particularly as I have a lot of trails I want to hike which aren’t on the TA. There are a couple sections of the South Island where there is no food available for something like 15 days, so we send packages of food ahead with a weeks worth of food that we are able to pick up at certain locations that are willing to hold them for hikers.

Tomorrow (New Years Eve) I’ll take the ferry across and start the Queen Charlotte track, officially ending the north island. I’m excited for the much more wild terrain of the South Island. I suspect my blog updates are about to become much less frequent!