A Dangerous Business

Date: 3rd November 2023

Yet again, I am very grateful that I rested. No alarm in the morning, no agenda to complete during the day, just relax in Kaitaia. Again. Somehow a planned 2 nights total in this town has blown into 5 nights, although I certainly don’t regret any of them. After listening to the reports from Vicki and Melly and their experience in hiking along the beach during Sunday’s storm, waiting those two extra nights was worth it. After waking up this morning, seeing rain outside, and being able to walk normally for the first time since Monday, waiting today was also worth it. I knew that my beautifully crafted itinerary for this walk would change at some point along my journey, but I didn’t consider that these changes would come in the first week. I’m at the point now where that doesn’t bother me. Whatever happens now, whether weather, sketchy tracks, or (God forbid) equipment failure, I have to learn to embrace it and make the best of whatever situation I’m in.

So anyway, I wake up to the sound of rain hitting the roof of the hostel and it doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I’m in a proper building, I have nowhere to go. Marlon gets up and heads to breakfast, only to come back in rather quickly to notify me that my boots were soaked. To avoid gassing the room, I had left them outside and hadn’t considered the fact that in the event of rain they’d get wet. And now they are. And now I’m sad.

Once I eventually got out of bed, I set about completing today’s agenda of doing absolutely nothing. In fairness, there really wasn’t anything to do. When the sun came out in the early afternoon (drying my boots off in the process), a group of us went to a coffee shop in town. The chat was good but the coffee was mid. Apart from that, I spent an hour or so finalising yesterday’s blog post, chatted with the hikers and seasonal workers at the hostel, and put a load of washing through. Whilst this was all happening, I noticed the hostel was getting crazy busy. Today seems to coincide with the coach arriving from Kerikeri/Auckland dropping off a bunch of walkers and another group who had just come off the beach after waiting out the storm I had dealt with on Monday. Tom had also arrived back having spent Monday night in the Te Paki sand dunes. It was hard to keep track of all of the new arrivals and who was going to the Cape or the forests. Honestly it was kinda overwhelming so I mostly kept to myself that evening.

For dinner, I went next door for some dirty bird (aka, KFC) and looked at the menu in horror at the prices they were charging. I won’t rant too much, but it was far too expensive for what they’re offering. Like, I get that inflation means you have to up prices a bit, but it was ridiculous. Granted I still bought food from there, so what does that say about me?

Once the food was in my stomach and the post-KFC regret feelings were in my head, I started making plans for tomorrow. Mirjam and Sonja would sadly not be continuing the walk tomorrow; their respective injuries need more time to heal. Vicki and Melly, however, would be stepping back onto the trail, although they’ll be following the actual trail up to Raetea Peak. With that said, Marlon, Vadem and I would still be sharing a good portion of tomorrow’s walk with them. Melly therefore suggested we get lunch together at a trail angel’s place about 14 km into the walk. That sounded like a decent enough plan to me, so I accepted. Additonally, there’s a 5 km section along SH1 that we’re planning to hitchhike. Having spent a week in the far north semi-attached to Kaitaia, it’s gonna feel a bit weird leaving it, knowing you won’t be returning anytime soon. It’s a new chapter of this trail, let’s see what it contains.

That was really cheesy, I don’t know what my brain was thinking when it wrote that…