Day 57: Whanganui to Koitiata

Distance Covered: 36 km

Christmas! Road walking! Two things that we have personally shown do not work well together.

The morning was a sad affair as we said goodbye to our river friends. The Alaskan and two Germans are headed north to do the Tongariro Crossing. The Finnish woman and Emily and I walked on. On our way out of the campground, we all took a picture together. The people we’ve met have really been one of the highlights of the trail.

We had started walking away from the campground when someone yelled to wait. We turned around to see the manager running towards us wearing an elf shirt and carrying a jar of candy. He wished us a Merry Christmas and insisted that we all take some candy. Great stuff!

Unlike road walking, which is bad stuff. We had eight days off from real walking and started fresh. Within a half hour or so, we could feel the familiar road walking problems creeping back. Past houses and over a railroad bridge, we headed towards the main route for the day: a highway. The city park and river path we walked through and along on the way out of town were nice, but there was a kind of sense of dread.

We walked down the on ramp to the highway after about 10 km. We were immediately assaulted with the buffeting and noise and heightened awareness that the experience brings. In fact, it was so loud that I could only catch snippets of a podcast, even at full volume, which added just that little additional brain gymnastics as I tried to fill in the gaps. It’s mentally exhausting. And the foot pounding is no fun either.

It took us several hours of walking (and a lunch break) to get off the highway and onto the road that would take us toward our beachside campsite. We walked 100 meters up this road and then collapsed into heaps on a little grassy patch. Break time!

While we were sitting there, munching on a snack and massaging our shins, a truck pulled up. A man named Bob asked us how we were doing. He thought we might have been injured and wanted to make sure we were OK. Yes, we are OK and thank you for your concern, was our reply. We exchanged a few more pleasantries and then he headed to the highway in his farm truck to run an errand while we got up and walked on.

About 20 minutes of walking later, he pulled up again, now going our same direction. He said he was thinking about us and wanted to invite us to his house for Christmas Dinner. He lived just up the road and would like to give us a ride. We enthusiastically said yes to dinner and politely declined the ride. We said we would cover the km or so quickly and he said he’d wait for us on the corner.

A short time later, we were sitting in Bob and Lynn’s house with their adult son and his wife. Bob and Lynn have been married for 57 years and were born and raised in the same area. In fact, he grew up just a couple hundred meters away. They raise cattle. They could be right out of any Midwestern American Town. Their table was absolutely covered in food of all sorts. Meats, potatoes, things on sticks, and… juice!

The conversation centered around the same topics we’ve been hearing this whole trip: Trump, automation and disappearing jobs, and the future. Interesting to us was that they were the first people we met who were not outright anti Trump. They weren’t for him either. They did seem intrigued by his message of stabilizing the deterioration of what they had known and worked for throughout their lives. The story of rural New Zealand is the story of rural America.

Something else came up too: their son is protesting the Te Araroa trail. His main point is that the trail is advertised as something it’s not: complete and safe. He says the highway walking used to “complete” the trail is stupid dangerous. We agree. He also says they are always asking farmers for permission to route the trail through their land. The farmers have stringent documentation standards they have to meet, including noting when they move animals between paddocks as it can create safety hazards. Having hikers walk through paddocks where they may want to move their bulls makes them uneasy. They don’t want to do it. We agree with their thinking. 

We outlined our thoughts on the trail and then, because its Christmas, the son happened to drop by the house for a few minutes. He was wary of us, but interested in our viewpoints. When we said we agreed with him he seemed to relax. He then added something we didn’t find too surprising: he met with the Te Araroa trust and learned that most of the leadership had never walked the trail. They were working hard to get trail through farmland to make it safer, but had not actually walked the things they were routing us through in the meantime. This made sense to us as sometimes we will look at a challenge (like a long bridge today with zero shoulder and roaring semis) and wonder how they could possibly even suggest that hikers do it. So it was an interesting conversation.

But we did have to get back on the road in order to make it to camp before dark. We wished then all a Merry Christmas and thanked them profusely for a wonderful meal and experience. And then onto the road!

This road wound through farmland towards the coast. We were both limping along having done almost exclusively pavement for the whole day. Finally, as the sun was low in the sky, we reached the small beach town of Koitiata. 

We had one mini experience while walking through it: a car was pulling into the driveway in front of us. We stopped to let it through. It then stopped and the driver rolled down his window, shouted hello, smiled, and stuck his hand out. He was still a couple of meters away so, not knowing what else to do, I closed the gap and took his hand to shake it. He said his name was Brian Carter and this was the house to ask for any help at all and he admired what we were doing and Merry Christmas and so on. But while he was saying all of these things he still had my hand firmly grasped in his, giving it a small pump and shake every few seconds. I was genuinely happy to share time with him, but I also sensed the comedy of the situation as I could not get my hand back. I thanked him for his thoughts and encouragement and wished him all the best. He said the same and then finally let go with one more pump and shake. You can’t argue with the enthusiasm!

And then it was a short walk to the campsite wedged between the town and beach. It’s a well maintained little place and free for us hikers. Woohoo! Emily and I said hello to the other hikers, setup our tent, and then wandered over to a little viewing platform to watch the sun set. The beach is black sand and the sun was shining through the water. Very nice. We chatted with other campers about the trail while cuddled together against the rail. And then it was back to camp to cook and get to bed.

Tomorrow is more road walking. We do get 8 km or so along the beach first, so that will be nice.