Home stretch (part 2)

28 May

Hukatere to Maunganui Bluff Campsite

KM 40

Distance: 30km

Elevation: ascent 5m; descent 6m

Steps: 41,700

Time: 7:35am - 2:20pm

Pretty special day on Ninety Mile Beach today,definitely not boring as some TA walkers hsve claimed. Thanks to the fact that we had stayed in a cabin, and had access to a kitchen with electricity, we had a very relaxed morning. For the last time on the trail we were able to get going without packing up the tent, and without having to use our little gas burner to heat up water for coffee. We were also able to refill our camelback bladders without having to filter the water. Partially thanks to these modern conveniences, we were on the beach in time to watch the sun come up over the dunes.

Today looked very similar to yesterday - just walking up 90 Mile Beach, a nice wide flat hard-packed sand beach. Today the presence of pipi was much more obvious, in fact they kept squirting Eliza's legs as she walked past and over them. While we did not stop to collect any, we saw more than a few people out with spades and shovels getting a pretty good feed.

The bird life was plentiful and reasonably diverse - you can see four species of black-and-white birds in this photo: black-backed gull; red-billed gull; white-fronted tern; pied shag. Missing from this photo but commonly seen today are the (also black-and-white) pied stilts, and the (brown and white) dotterals. 

We also saw a few very large, and rarely-seen-on-land, sea birds who were taking a rest on the beach - too tired to care too much about the cars driving past, or the very odd penguins with hump backs and weird colouring (aka TA hikers) walking by. This is a Giant Petrel, one of two we saw today.

And an albatross! Unfortunately, you can't see it's amazing eye makeup. A younger hiker than we described the eyeliner as "on fleek" - we are too old for such language (even if Eliza thought it).

Another critter we found was this eagle ray. Very dead though. It was about a metre wide, wingtip to wingtip. There have also been plenty of puffer/porcupine fish and a few small dog sharks.

We were so glad to see the Maunganui Bluff come into sight (upper left in the photo below) - again, it wasn't that hard of a day on the body, and we obviously got through the kilometers by pretty early in the afternoon, but our feet, legs, backs, let's be honest pretty much our entire bodies were ready for the day to be done, and for the chance to be out of the wind and the blowing sand. For most of the day the wind wasn't too bad, but it was ever-present, just pushing the back of our right shoulders. A few times it swung around to push us off course; and the few times we wanted to walk directly "up" the beach, like at lunchtime to find some dry sand to sit down on, it blew directly into our faces. And when we sat down for "second lunch" about an hour before finishing, we were chased away from our chosen spot after just a minute or two by the blasting sand. Luckily, other than that moment, the sand stayed at calf height or lower, so we didn't eat much, if any, sand while walking.

Just before getting to the camp, we had to cross a stream. Check out this raging torrent that was in our way! Luckily, by now we are well-versed at crossing rivers, so managed to do so safely. And amazing to still have dry feet for the umpteenth day in a row! This record will end tomorrow, with heavy rain due to start mid-morning and continue all day and into the night.

Which means that setting up the tent tomorrow evening will be... interesting. The weather, as forecast a few days ago, had indicated that even today we might be putting up the tent in the rain, so we were very glad to be able to put our tent up under blue skies, even if it is a bit windy. The trees seem to be sheltering this tent site from the worst of the gusts, at least.

Not a bad view from the tent! There is also a little shelter building here at the campsite so we can cook our food a bit out of the wind. We get to share this yet again with Aud and Pol, who have been our travelling companions for some time now. This will be our last night with them, however, as they are going to push through the last 40km tomorrow. Despite the forecast rain, we will do just a "short" 28km tomorrow and finish the final 12km on Monday morning.

The view from Maunganui Bluff north, where we start the walk tomorrow looks as wild and stunning as the previous 2 days.