Icy cold to ice cream

15 April

Te Whare o Moturimu to Whiowhio Hut

KM 1484

Distance: 33.8km

Elevation: ascent 672m, descent 989m

Steps: 45,900

Time: 7:00 - 3:15pm

Frost encrusted thistles and frozen droplets on fence wire provided empirical evidence confirming our theory that it was REALLY cold last night!

Below freezing kind of cold. Although we were in the shelter you saw in yesterday's blog, it only has a curtain in place of a door so the inside temperature was probably about the same as outside. It certainly felt below freezing to us.

However, as you can see in the first photo the morning proimised a stunning day. And so it was, even if we had to wear multiple warm layers for the first hour or so.

On this section we passed yet another momentous milestone! The official nominal halfway point of Te Araroa. Nominal because each year the route gets tweaked, moved, rerouted due to slips and track closures etc. However, this is THE official sign and is based on the 2017 iteration of the route. Remember, we returned to the Tararua section to fill in the missing piece, so we have actually walked more than 1500 km of the 3013 km.

The first few hours of today's section of the trail were along forestry roads which meadered into mountain bike tracks. Following a short rural road section we were into the linked sections of replanted riparian (riverside) strips called the Green Corridor. Then we were lead through parts of Massey University's grounds before entering suburban Palmerston North, the main city of the Manawatu region. We found ourselves in the green belt of the city and discovered two food trucks, one serving gourmet icecream (Vaughan had two scoops: raspberry ambrosia and cherry buttermilk) and another truck serving a New Zealand version of American hotdogs. It was recognisable as an American hotdog, but Eliza is adamant that while they had the bun right, the actual hot dog was wrong, wrong, wrong. 

The forecast high for the day was 19°C so we knew that at some point we would be shedding all those warm layers. Compare how we started (photos above) with how we finished.

Palmerston North turned on the weather and the riverside walk to our accommodation was amazing! Speaking of our accommodation, we're staying with Trail Angels Fiona and Anthony who have built a replica backcountry hut in their backyard for trampers to stay in. They have even gone as far as installing track markers on streetlights and a track sign at the driveway. The hut has many features of a backcountry hut and they only ask for a koha (donation), with the money going to a conservation project.

They're super friendly and interesting, and shared their homemade kombucha and feijoa chutney. 

For dinner tonight we decided to treat ourselves to takeaways. Burger/fish, 1.5 scoops of chips, and a container of chicken fried rice. The rice was supposed to be for later if we got hungry but we got through half of it before we were full. The rest we'll have for a late night snack or breakfast. It's way more than we would eat in real life. 

And on that note, we used the electric scales here and found out that Eliza has lost 9 kg since we started the walk, and Vaughan has lost 12 kg. So no regrets about overeating tonight or any other time. If you're looking for advice on how to lose weight you're welcome to talk to us. But you know what we'll say. 

We have two rest days planned here because we've earned it. We have plenty more eating in our near future, you can be sure.