Day 55: More Road Walking
December 4th, 2019
Kilometers: 1435.1-1463.1
Mt Lee’s Reserve- Pepper Tree Backpackers
We all woke up around 7:30 this morning, a little later than usual. Regardless, we knew we had a short day today and we were all exhausted from our near marathon from yesterday.
We packed up and ate our breakfast in the room before setting off. Unlike yesterday, the weather was really nice to start the day. The temperature was perfect for hiking and the sun was shining.
The only downside was that today would be 30km all along a road yet again. Road walking, while fast, hurts my feet worse than any other kind of surface.
After 11km of walking, we arrived in the town of Fielding, which is routinely voted New Zealand’s prettiest city according to Guthook. The town is home to about 10,000 people and had a wonderful little square in the center of town.
In Fielding, we stopped at the Spring Patisserie where we all enjoyed pastries followed by breakfast. Directly after breakfast, we went to a sushi place for lunch. With a few days of dehydrated meals ahead of us in the mountains, it seemed okay to overindulge. After sushi, we began the 19km walk to Palmerston North.
It was around noon at this point and we all underestimated just how hot the sun was going to be.
We walked alongside a road that ran parallel to the major road from Fielding to Palmerston for most of the way which had little shade and almost no shoulder. It went by quickly but we all ended up much redder than anticipated.
We crossed from over the railroad tracks running down the middle more than once.
Eventually, the pavement gave way for gravel which eventually ran out. Over the course of the next half kilometer. We crossed 7-8 stiles and had to maneuver under an electric fence just to stay on the trail. It was somewhat surprising considering how close we were to the large city but was a refreshing change of pace from the road walking.
After what felt like an eternity, we finally got to Alex who had been patiently waiting at Main St just east of the city. By this point, we were all starting to notice just how red we had gotten. We walked for another 2 kilometers to the Pepper Tree Backpackers hostel where we would spend the night. The place was nice and had great facilities but we found the owners to be standoffish and even rude at times. When Peter tried to shake the owners hand when he let us in, the man just started at him for a few moments before shaking it.
As everyone settled in, I went to Bivouac a few blocks away and resupplied Alex and my wilderness wash for the remainder of the North Island.
We were all able to take hot showers and do a load of laundry, our last one for almost a week.
Once our laundry finished around 730, we met Matthew, who had been taking a zero day, at a restaurant called Little Savanna. Everyone got beers except for me, I always go for cocktails.
I ordered a Portuguese style meat skewer which was probably the best meal I have gotten in New Zealand so far.
At dinner, we discussed our plans for the mountains over the next few days. The weather conditions look really poor and the mountains are not a place to take risks. We likely are going to carry 7 days of food with us and get to the base of the mountains where we will have the choice to hitch to the town of Levin to let the weather clear for a few days or go up if it improves.
After dinner and dessert, we headed back to the hostel and are all going right to bed. We stayed at the restaurant till almost 10, well passed our bed time.
Tomorrow morning we will resupply and have our heaviest packs so far, should be a fun one.
-Ethan