Day 48: Taringamotu Road to Taumarunui
Distance Covered: 15 km
Today was another example where being flexible is an important part of the Te Araroa experience.
It started with a 10 km walk into town.
One interesting thing about walking next to the major road for that long was that we met an elderly woman who has lived in Taumarunui for 80 years. She said the town is dying as all the young people leave for better opportunities. There used to be some sort of factory and meat packing plant, but those left and the town had been going down hill. There used to be 1,500 high school students and now there are only 500. Sounds like a lot of small towns in America.
The first order of business in town was a good breakfast. We stopped at a cafe that served all day breakfast and ordered up deliciousness. I tell you, New Zealand does bacon right. If you order bacon and eggs here you are getting wide (like 4 inches), thick pieces of bacon piled up under your eggs. Somehow, America got this totally wrong.
Then we went to the supermarket. It looked like we would need four days of food. Believe it or not, we have finally arrived at the Tongariro Crossing. It’s two days away and then one day past it to supplies. The forecast was two days of good then one day of bad, which was also the day for the crossing. So we went with four and a half days of food so we could wait out the weather as needed. We thought we would go easy on buying heavy food if we ate breakfast first. It didn’t work, though… too many things look exactly like what you would like to eat on the trail.
Then we headed over to the post office. It was really great to get our new shoes! Mine had almost no tread, Emily’s were barely holding together. We also got a little of our warmer gear since it’s been so cold lately and we are headed south.
The new shoes felt strange. Stiff and tighter. I also felt taller with the tread lifting me up. Emily’s felt a little too tight and she’s feeling concerned. Hopefully they loosen up soon.
And then we walked the 5 km to the campsite out of town and down the trail. Or highway… down the highway. The part nearest town had wide grass strips, though, which was nice.
We were in camp by 4 or so and then it was time for laundry and drying things in the sun. We also took the opportunity to start planning the river section that follows the Tongariro crossing. The trail actually dead ends at the Whanganui River and you have to coordinate with a canoe provider to meet you there at a given time on a given day. Then you paddle downstream for a couple of days and walk 50 km of road or you can paddle all the way to Whanganui. We did the math and felt that meeting them on Dec 26th was the way to go. (Christmas on the trail!)
We talked over the plan with a couple of other hikers and decided to call together to save money. So I called the first company and asked about the 26th and they not only said that wasn’t an option, but that there was nothing from Dec 22nd to Jan 5th! Whoa!
They said that this year was particularly busy and that they and everyone else are scrambling to support all the tourists. They even bought extra boats. The limit becomes the available campgrounds and cabins along the way and those were all booked too. Hmm…
They said they could help us if we got on the river before the 22nd, maybe like the 18th or so. But that is two days away… not nearly enough time to get there. There were two other options: one is to get in the river a four day hike away in Whakahoro and the other is to get in the river right where we are. If the weather was good we could possibly make it to Whakahoro in time, but we know that at least one day is bad and will stop us from making the crossing over Tongariro (which requires good weather). So this meant that we were pushed into leaving from Taumarunui now and not doing any of the trail between here and our first option.
There are upsides to this plan. One, we get 7 days on the river instead of 2 or 3. It will be just over 200 km (120 miles) of river canoeing. Two, we get longer recuperation time for our feet. Three, by starting from here we will do the entire Whanganui “Great Walk” (even though it’s a river) which means it’s a particularly beautiful part of the country. And four, we get to carry lots of delicious things in the boats that we couldn’t otherwise put in backpacks. In the original plan, we would have had to carry 8 days of food on our backs once we got to National Park Village.
The big downside is that we miss the world famous Tongariro crossing trek, which is supposed to be one of the best day hikes in the world. Fortunately, we already had a plan in place to do it again anyway with a friend when we got to the end of the north island. And we will miss other hiking trail too. However, there’s also another 50 km of road walking in there so it wasn’t all trail anyways.
In the end, the positives outweigh the negatives and we are looking forward to 7 days on the river. The others agreed and we have 6 people in our group. A German couple, a female hiker from Finland, and the guy from Alaska whose tent we found a few days ago. We are taking a day off tomorrow to buy more food and get ready. And then we will be on the river, headed for Whanganui. Crazy!