Day 4: Utea Park Campground to Ahipara
Distance Covered: 31 km
Yikes. Well here we are. We decided to push ourselves hard today so we could take a full rest day tomorrow. After doing back-to-back 29 km days we were sore. We had discussed splitting up the last 31 km to give two relatively easy days, but the mental appeal of doing nothing for an entire day was motivating.
Or at least it was for the first 20 km. With 11 km to go we hit something of a wall. My feet felt surprisingly good, but my legs were beat. Meanwhile, Emily said her legs felt good, but here feet were shot. She’s had the worst of the blisters so every step stings.
We didn’t stop for too many breaks. We joked that we were like old steam trains: It takes us a while to get going after we stop. We get so stiff that our first steps are mere shuffles with neither foot going past the other. After a minute, one foot edges past the other, and another minute later (or two) we finally get back to something resembling walking. Although the chugga chugga never really gets fast enough to reach the choo choo part of the train analogy! Also, we can only go forward with slight deviations to the side. No sudden movements!
Side news: We got lucky with the tides. We didn’t face some of the challenges that others had with scrambling up and around soft dunes. The picture below was about as close as we got to trouble. We also were very lucky with the weather.
We played leap frog with the UK and Cyprus hikers. Each of us is facing pain and believes the others are doing great. It’s funny to hear them say we seem to be making it look easy while we grimace and marvel at their seeming grace.
The last 5k of the beach was miserable! All hikers reported that the damn town in the distance never got any closer! We could see it for two or more hours. However, the beach skews perspective. Things that appear large and far away are close while small looking things could be quite large and hours away. We all joked about the town not coming closer, but when we laughed it was that half desperate, half wistful kind of laugh…
Meanwhile, the fatigue curve went exponential. I found it most effective to stumble forward and let my trekking poles catch me. Emily tried different things, but eventually settled on something of a shuffle. I don’t think her feet moved past the length of each other for most of the last 5 km. We were in a slow “race” with each of the other hikers where each of us seemed to be trying to walk slower than the others. The guiding beacon for all of us, though, was the shining promise of a rest day.
Of course, we all made it and we managed to get to the YHA in Aripaha. It’s a great little place. Seems surreal to hear pop music in the clean and spacious bathrooms, even though we were only on the beach for 3.5 days.
Speaking of which. on our way to the YHA, we passed a house with many blooming flowers near the sidewalk. The aroma was intoxicating. The beach smells like clean air. Then there’s our personal odor. Otherwise… nothing. Smelling the sweet scent of flowers in bloom was blowing my mind.
So the plan is to camp tonight and then get a private room tomorrow. We are definitely looking forward to relaxing, drying out our feet, and fueling up for the next leg.
Bonus news: we finished our first 100 km today! We covered 101 km (about 63 miles) in 3.5 days. Neither of us would have believed (or agreed to) this result if you had asked us in the beginning.
