Day 30: A Trail Angel Feast

November 9, 2019

Kilometers: 703.2-736.1

Rangiriri Pie Shop to Trail Angels House

After having our longest day on the trail yesterday we decided to take it a bit slower this morning. We slept in about an hour later than usual. Cathy had opened the pie shop early for us. Charlie, Peter and I had an egg and ham pie, Ethan had an apple pie. The pies were huge and delicious. At about 9 am we set off from the pie shop for another day on the trail. 

The TA Facebook page has been filled by hikers who in recent days had seen very aggressive bulls in the paddocks we were supposed to pass through this morning. Charlie and I thought about taking the route anyway as we kind of enjoyed the adrenaline rush of the bull encounters yesterday but ultimately decided to road walk instead. Unfortunately this led to our day starting with about 20km of road walking. We made our way down the road slowly but steadily. I am now listening to “Sapiens” on audiobook so I enjoyed a few hours of that. 

Around noon we got to a picnic area that was on the river we were walking along. Peter, Charlie and I decided to take a midday bath as we hadn’t been able to bath since Glenn’s house two days before.

We all ate lunch and prepared for the last road walking section. After lunch we quickly cranked out the last 7kms of road and prepared for the big test of the day. The Hakarimata Forest was about 12kms, starting with a 300 meter climb and walking along a ridge until the summit right near the end of the track. We all rolled up to the summit between 5:30 and 6:30pm to enjoy the view. 

At the summit we called Sheryl to set up a pick up time from the parking lot 2kms below. We ran down the more than 1300 stairs towards the lot. Sheryl’s husband and son met us there to pick us all up and take us back to their house. 

Once back at their house we were met by two other hikers and Sheryl’s extended family. As we set up our tents we were handed much appreciated beers. Once we had set up they offered us dinner that they had prepared for us, the other hikers, and their family. It was a feast! Steaks, sausages, salad, carrots, mushrooms, asparagus, garlic bread, potatoes and more. We were encouraged to finish everything so that there were no leftovers. That wasn’t much problem for us as we can basically eat all day everyday at this point. 

We were so grateful for the food, beer and hospitality. After helping clear the dishes we quickly climbed into our tents, exhausted and stuffed. We have hiked about 153kms the last four days and tomorrow we pass the 25% done mark! Looking forward to some laundry, hot showers and a real bed tomorrow night in Hamilton.

-Alex