Day 47: Trading Poles For Paddles
November 26th, 2019
Kilometers: 1203.0-Kilometer Not Provided (47km Paddled)
Whakahoro-Mangawaiiti Campsite
Kilometers are not provided for today because Mangawaiiti is not on the trail on the Guthook App, which we use for our markers. The trail provides two options for hikers. One option calls for an extra day or hiking and the other an extra day of canoeing. Like most hikers we opted to take the route with an extra day of canoeing. One reason for this is it is much cheaper for most canoe hire companies to launch from the Whakahoro location because of its access and boat ramp. Although we are not technically on the Guthook trail tonight we are still on the trail and will rejoin the Guthook trail tomorrow.
At 6:00am this morning, a woman from the school field trip stood right on our balcony to yell at her kids it was time to wake up. We were all pretty pissed off at her because not only was it disrespectful to us when our windows were clearly open, but most of the kids didn’t even seem to wake up.
We all tried with varying degrees of success to go back to sleep for a while.
At 7, Charlie decided enough was enough and put on 3 Doors Down to wake us all up. The cafe across the way opened at 8 and he wasn’t going to let us forget it.
Over the next hour, we all packed away our clothes and sleeping bags and made our way up for breakfast. The weather was very grey today despite the forecast calling for nothing but sun for the next week.
Peter and Charlie each ordered two things for breakfast which seemed crazy to us. Alex had eggs, bacon, and toast and I had eggs benedict with bacon. It was incredible. The bread was homemade and super buttery and soft. The bacon was actually real bacon!
Alex and I each went back up and ordered another order of eggs, bacon, and toast.
After breakfast, we headed back to the cabin to wait for the boats to arrive.
At 9:30, Jono from Taumarunui Canoe Hire picked us up and drove us just down the road to get us all squared away.
The company we chose is amazing. Their canoes have seat backs, which make long days of paddling much more relaxing and they brought us fresh bread and chocolate cupcakes this morning.
After all our barrels were packed and we had demonstrated that we knew how to paddle, we said farewell to Jono and set off on our 5 day adventure.
Alex and I have been on canoe trips together before and both have a good idea of how to work as a team. Team Belgium, which had just learned you only have one blade on a canoe paddle, decided to try and overcome this lack of knowledge by using brute strength. Peter and Charlie would both paddle on the same side a few times until they started turning too far and then would switch to the other without warning the other. They were zig-zagging through the river.
The weather remained very dreary for the first parts of the morning and the wind got chilly at times. Despite this, Alex and I knew they UV Index was still high and we had a chance to even out our tan lines with the minimal sunlight.
After an hour or so of paddling, the sun finally began to break through the clouds.
We continued on for quite a while before deciding around 1:30pm that we should stop for lunch. While digging through our barrels, Alex and I discovered we had somehow significantly under-packed lunch. We had just three bags of dried fruit, a bag of pretzels, bagel chips, and trail mix for 5 days.
We still aren’t totally sure how we miscalculated so badly but we have a good amount of peanut butter still and the Belgians were kind enough to give us a bag of their wraps. We should have enough for 4 days and will need to get into Whanganui in time for lunch on day 5.
After lunch, all hell let loose.
When we were passing them, Charlie accidentally splashed Peter and Peter assumed Alex had done it. This began an hour long battle of swerving, crashing, and splashing. The fight climaxed after a successful attack run by us when the Belgians decided to land their boat and try and swim to tip us. They severely underestimated the speed of the water and we cruised by them flailing in the water.
By this point, the sun was beating down on us quite heavily. We all put on our shirts and more sunscreen and tried to keep from getting burnt as much as possible. Exhausted, we also tied up our canoes and floated down the river together for a while.
At about 6, we finally reached the Mangawaiiti Campsite and tied up our boats. After climbing up to the campsite, we found a few other hikers we have ran into many times over the last 20 or so days.
The four of us took liter showers with water from the water pump.
We then made dinner, which Alex and I were super excited for considering our small lunch.
We had chicken chili with noodles and crushed Doritos on top of it. Despite being a huge meal, we ate it all and it was fantastic.
We are going to bed tonight exhausted but full and ready for more days on the river.
-Ethan