Whanganui to Palmerston North

• Start: @ km 1360
• End: @ km 1394
• Hiked: 34 km

The day started with a surprise. The yogurt and juice that we had planned to have for breakfast were frozen, because we accidentally put them in the freezer and not in the fridge. They looked almost the same, probably could have told by the ice cream in the freezer. So we only had our date scones - a usual treat in towns for us - and packed the frozen food for later. We had to hurry a bit, because at 7 we had a ride into town (we already walked that yesterday) by a super friendly campground staff member on her way to the gym. Thank you!

The trail gave a choice for the first bit: stairs, a really old elevator or following the street. But it was just a little too early for the elevator, so we took the stairs. When we were up at the top and cooled down a little on a bench (and might have settled a little argument), it turned 8 o'clock and we could hear the elevator. Well, now it was too late...

The rest of the day was mainly road walking and little farm tracks until we got back to the ocean and followed the beach for the last kilometers of the day. Just before that we also met Ruel, a fun dutch guy, that would join our little team for a few days. He walks the whole trail in barefoot sandals and was by himself at the moment as his partner had problems with her knees and went ahead and rested in Wellington for a while. We had some time to relax and chat, because just before the campground would be a tidal river crossing, that we could not attempt too early. Low tide was around 17:30, so no hurry.

The walk along the beach was beautiful, because unlike what we've seen before the sand was black and full of beautiful driftwood in all kinds of shapes and heaps of birds, so there was always something to watch. We attempted the river crossing around one hour before low tide and Mathias was the first to go in, without the pack at first, to check the situation. It wasn't too bad and we were able to bring all the gear over without getting it wet. The little campground was cute, flat, fresh and very windy. We had dinner at a table watching the sun set over the ocean and went to bed.

• Start: @ km 1394
• End: @ km 1435.5
• Hiked: 41.5 km

At the beginning of last night, we had some neighbors turning up and having loud conversations next to our tent, but that didn't last too long and then we had passed out. And then it was probably the fresh marine air and the wind that gave us such a great sleep. Wonderful.

The track continued along the beach for a few kilometers (passing 1400 km mark) and then there were different ways to interpret the route. We chose to follow a marker that we spotted on the side and that led us off the beach and into a "haunted forest". The path was sandy and a lot of the trees seemed more dead than alive. Because of the soft sand in the forest, this route was probably quite a bit slower than if we would have followed the beach for a little more..

Close by there was a military base and during the whole day they practiced some stunt flying and different formations, which was a welcomed diversion from the road walking that was coming up. We passed a town called Bulls which pleased us with (a) public toilets, (b) lots of enjoy'a'bull wordplays with their town names and (c) a subway restaurant where Leah ate her first footlong sub all by herself, while talking to her dad on Skype and bragging about her appetite ;-)

We walked a little bit more along several roads to our night camp at Mt Lees Reserve which had not only a nice spot for our tents, but also two summer houses, that offered lots of hangout places on chairs and couches. Nat and Ruel were already there and the girls followed not far behind us. Oh, and there was a somewhat aggressive duck that wanted our food.

• Start: @ km 1435.5
• End: @ km 1470
• Hiked: 34.5 km

We left Mt Lees Reserve and walked - along roads once again - to Feilding (pronounced "Fielding" - why?). We went through the town center to grab some breakfast and while we were sitting there and taking advantage of the free WiFi, Leah received some exciting news, offering her a job interview for a position in Zurich. She wanted to spend some more time to look into the details and Mathias used that to have someone deal with the shrubbery that was growing on his face and went to a nearby barber. The result of the barbery wasn't great, but much better than the previous state.

Somewhere on the further way to Palmerston North, we met the girls and Nat again. The girls were drying their tent at the side of the road, but Nat joined us and walked with us for a bit. To our surprise the closer we got to the bigger city, the less road walking we had. They found tiny green corridors to let us walk through and a long stretch went along the railway tracks through fields and farms. Some of them had sheep, some had cows, one of them had a bull that was really interested in us and we were happy to be off the paddock, before it got too close. It looked mean.

We said farewell to Nat, when we stopped for food at a little cafe again and finished the trail through the city and along the beautiful Manawatu River to Fitzherbert bridge. We felt so done, that we called an Uber for the way from the track to the 2.5 km away Pak'nSave, where we met the girls to prepare for our evening plans: We were picked up by Maria (who started with us at Cape Reinga and lived close to Palmerston North) and had a wonderful South African, vegan dinner at her house with her and her daughter Lisabet. We brought sparkling wine, wine and chocolate. It was amazing and felt like meeting and catching up with old friends. It would also mark the last night with the girls, as we needed a day off and they would continue on tomorrow. 😢

We had a perfect sleep at Maria's place. This was partly due all the drinks we had last night, but at least to the same amount due to a wonderful bed, that we slept in. We had some breakfast with tasty bread and coffee and first said good bye to Maria, who left for work and then - after Lisabet drove us into town - to her, Sarah and Julia 😢.

The first time on the trip we used the local library to work on the blog. It is so much nicer to type on a keyboard than on a phone, but you only got limited time on the computers and also we received some bad family news, that threw us off and we took a break.

After a quick lunch Mathias got some new gear (t-shirt, underwear, socks) to switch out some of the already worn-out stuff and we did the usual grocery shopping for the upcoming section through the Tararua Ranges - our first alpine part of the trail.

We stayed at a trail angels place very close to where we stopped walking the trail on the day before. The couple that offered us a room was involved in the local Te Araroa trust group and very knowledgeable about the trail and gave us some good insights before we went to bed.