Day 20: McKenzie Bay to Waipu

Distance Covered: 26 km

Today’s theme was flexibility. The point of the trip is to journey across New Zealand, not to walk every meter of an imaginary line. Even still, we try very hard to be honest with ourselves. There are a few people in our bubble of hikers who hitchhike the roads. That’s not our style, but we try not to judge. They’re not being paid to do this so they can do whatever they’d like, whenever they’d like, says I. Also, not many pictures today because power levels are critically low.

Our day started with the Appin Cabin owner still missing. We could hear the phone ringing inside the office when we called. So we didn’t pay for camping. One sign said free and one said $20. We left a message saying we would call in a few days to check in and mail payment as needed. We liked the little campground and were surprised to be the only ones there. (Everyone else overlooked it in the trail notes.)

So onward and forward, we needed to cover 5 km before 10:30 when we would meet up with a retired gentleman who ferries hikers across the bay for $10. 

It’s a major shipping and industrial channel so the ride was absolutely necessary. Along the way, we stopped at a convenience store for a few items. Expensive as always. We did splurge and each bought 1 liter of juice each. They didn’t last long…

Near the pickup point, we learned everyone else happened to catch another ferry from another retired gentleman for the same price. No worries, that meant we had our boat to ourselves. We texted Peter, the boat owner, and he said he’d be there in two minutes.

The pickup point was just a little concrete ramp going into the water with no boats around. Sure enough, a little while later, Peter came roaring around the corner on the road on an old, red farm tractor pulling his boat behind him. He told us to hop on the boat while he lowered it into the water. That done and the boat floating, he released from the tractor and we were on our way. Peter is retired officially, but runs a little business where he’s called on to find and tow logs from the bay that are dropped by the big log carrying ships. Apparently, the ships drop several large logs with each shipment and call him at all hours of the night to retrieve them. It’s endlessly fascinating to me what people get up to with their free time.

Now safely across the bay, Peter pointed us in the right direction and down the beach we walked. It started raining and we kept getting closer to the industrial dock. Barbed wire was everywhere and security seemed tight around the oil and gas pipes. How to get past this mess? Turns out you just walk under it. The pipes thrummed not far above our heads.

The beach on the other side was narrow with high tide charging up. Several times our feet got wet as there was nowhere to go. We attempted staying on the dunes, but the barbed wire fence didn’t allow much space there. We were mostly making it work anyways when the sky opened up fiercely. Buckets of water poured on us. The wind whipped furiously. Hail pounded us, stinging through our clothes. My umbrella snapped. We rushed forward looking for any kind of shelter and found a set of stairs leading away from the beach. We scrambled up them, drenched. At the top, we found a little car park with a short line of trees that we beelined to. They provided good protection and we waited it out.

While waiting, we saw a nearby van in the otherwise empty and remote area. Inside were a teenage looking couple, each in their seats. We waved and they feebly waved back. We waited five minutes and the guy started looking impatient. He honked the horn, seemingly on accident. The weather was looking better, but we waited for it to die down a little more. The horn beeped again. He was looking exasperated. Finally, we left. I waved again and the girl waved back. He gave me a look that said, “get moving already”. I make no assumptions about what was going on…

Due to the high tide and bad weather, we opted to take the road instead of the beach. This meant more dreaded road walking. There seemed to be a parallel trail, but (being cold and wet) Emily’s appetite for the unknown was reduced. Also, our phones were just about dead so getting lost now would be more of a problem. To the road! (The dead phone is also why there's only the one picture in this post.)

Along the way we ran into two hikers who had the same idea. We found them at a gas station / pizza joint. Pizza for lunch was an unexpected pleasure! They also made sure we were pointed in the right direction. Unfortunately, the right direction included being along the major highway. Semis and traffic of all sorts roared past us. It made it difficult to hear anything and we were sometime struggling as we were buffeted around by their drafts.

The good news was that, being a major road, the shoulder was decently wide. And we found a major store along the way with a lot of variety and reasonable prices (although $15 cereal is still offered). And, although still sometimes rainy, it didn’t approach the intensity of the morning.

After what seemed like ages, we found the turn off to quieter roads and linked back up with the official trail. We followed the country roads for a few km and then shuffled along on cement sidewalks into the center of town. (we believe all cement sidewalks should be replaced with the softer runners’ racetrack material.)

We were just trying to figure out where to go when our Cyprus friend called out to us. She already had an adventure figuring out sleeping arrangements herself that included starting at a booked hostel, getting a free ride from them to another place, and finally an affordable campsite behind a pub. She was just going to the store when she happened to see us. She saved us a lot of time and effort!

We setup camp for $8 per person (cheapest we’ve ever found), enjoyed a mind blowing hot shower, ate delicious pub burgers and fries, and did laundry with real laundry soap. We and our clothes both reeked! We stayed up incredibly late to 10:30 PM and are now headed to bed.

Tomorrow is more road walking, followed by what should be good trails. And the weather should be just a little better too.