Cruising on the Interislander

29 March-31 March

Island Bay to Air Bnb in Khandallah

KM 1687.3, 2.6km off trail

Distance: 28.8km 

Elevation: ascent 1303m, descent 1138m

Steps: 47,600

Time: 9:20am - 6:30pm

We've had two good rest and admin days that got us all ready and back onto the trail.

The first day was the ferry from Picton to Wellington, and we really lucked out with a smooth sailing.

We also lucked out in that we met Shane and Charlene! We had met them back at Riverton (day 3), and followed them in hut books throughout, apparently we finished the South Island at the same time! Granted, they had done about three additional side tracks... They are also from Taranaki, although Shane is just starting a job in Auckland, so Charlene will be alternating between Taranaki, Auckland, and continuing some more long-distance hikes on her own.

We spent the first night in Wellington in a hotel that we've stayed at before, and got to watch some mid-week rugby in a nearby pub. Yes, more greasy food, and yes it was delicious :)

Then the admin - we needed to buy a new tent, and new hiking skirt for Eliza, as well as a grocery top up. We managed all of this in the morning, and then made our way to the home of Vaughan's cousins Janette and Damien and their son Oliver. They were such lovely family / trail angels, and we got to wash all of our clothes and even got a delicious home cooked dinner - so good! Also great to catch up, it had been 15 years since Vaughan and Janette last saw each other!

Janette even dropped us off at the trail head this morning to get started again.

We've confirmed that both of our packs are 15kg, with 3 days of food in them. So we are well balanced between the two of us :)

They say you can't beat Wellington on a good day, and we picked an absolute gem. The day started foggy (even closed the airport for a while), but it cleared to gorgeous by late morning, and stayed that way through the afternoon. 

The trail takes you through iconic parts of Wellington, including right past the Beehive (for those non-kiwis, this is the colloquial name for the Parliament Building.)

Central Wellington also very much celebrates the TA, with a bunch of different signage, that was a delight to follow. That is, except for inside the Botanic Gardens, where the trail signage and the TA App seemed to differ and... very much confused us.

Also while in central Wellington, we ran into a man who, after asking whether we were doing the TA, told us proudly that his son and partner are just finishing up the North Island (maybe 500km or less to go to Cape Reinga). They were TA Yo-Yos, having gone variously NoBo and SoBo and jumping around in order to finish both islands. We also re-met someone that we had met in Havelock, who had done the South Island NoBo to there in previous years, and just needed to do the QCT then on to the North Island. Good to see some friendly faces.

The final bit of today was up on the Skyline Walkway that overlooks Wellington. It was a bit more climbing than we thought we would do today, but we were glad we did. The VIEWS! We could see west and south to the South Island, looking back at where we had come from in the past couple of weeks.

We could also see out over Wellington Harbour

And of course we can look ahead to the trail in front of us.

The final bit of today was getting down off of the Skyline Walkway to our AirBnB in Khandallah, a suburb of Wellington. It added a few hundred meters of descent to our day (and therefore ascent for tomorrow), but this lovely place is worth it.

It was a very long day, probably a bit more than either of us was expecting this morning. So we are tired, and proud of ourselves, and look forward to continuing adventures on Te Ika-a-Māui!