Day 8

Today wasn’t an extremely interesting day. A road walk to start with. A road walk to finish with and a road walk in the middle.

We would walk past a small shop that was happy to serve me fries at 10:30 am. So while the rest ate pastries I ate fries.

The road was first State Highway 1, normally a busy road. However, due to storm damage, the part further ahead is closed so only local traffic uses the highway at the moment. So nice and quiet.

The rest was a gravel road. I walked by myself which I liked and preferred. I was ‘playing’ catch-up. But I passed the group when they took a break in the fields and they passed me when I ventured to the old campsite (didn’t reach it because halfway through I was like why??). Eventually, I caught up with Róisín and we started walking together. Unexpectedly I saw Ben walking towards us. He was on his way back to retrieve his water filter bottle. Luckily I saw it and expected someone left it accidentally behind, I took it with me. So I saved him around 6km roundtrip. He escorted us to the campsite which was only 2 km further.

There are many tents and the two groups I have met so far are now all at the same site. Plus the Kiwi brothers! Full house! But as everyone is happy and the sun is out, it doesn’t matter how small or large a group is. It is always fun.

There is a water tank at the campsite but no flowing water. I made the bad decision to not walk back to the stream we passed. But down 300m to the river. Almost there, the track became too muddy for me to cross without getting dirty. So intending to get cleaner, there is no point in continuing. Walking the 300m back up, I came back dirtier….

To cope with my sticky skin I put all my thermo layers to bed. And so here I lay. Early to bed which made me miss the first card game (FOMO!!). But never mind I’m sure there will be a next one.