Trail Holidays

We didn't leave town that day and instead decided to hang at the local restaurant and brew pub. The bartender there was a guy named Morgan who said he lived in the next town over and that we should stop at his place to camp the next night. Being in such a highly populated area, finding stealth spots for camping where we didn't have to pay was difficult so we accepted. The next morning all eleven of us left town for a long road walk before heading up onto some logging roads. In the afternoon, we got to the beach where we went for a swim and then layed in the warm sand. Where I unfortunately fell asleep without sunscreen on. I woke up after a half hour but the sun had stolen my energy and instead of moving to the cold shade, I rolled over and fell back asleep. When I woke up I was exhausted and thirsty so I got moving into town to find water. I had a headache and was feeling very loopy until there was a beach restroom with water faucet. I chugged water until I felt sick then made my way to Morgan's house. We warned him of the large size of our group but he was unconcerned about the 12 tents we would be setting up in his yard. He started a bonfire for us and we swapped traveling stories late into the night. The next day was filled with road walking and ended with a pretty brutal 15km beach walk. My ankle was still incredible sore and my sunburn was doubling. We reached a ridge and walked off trail to camp in an open field that would be wonderful for sunrise. We all cowboyed that night and woke up completely soaked by the dew of the night. Luckily the sun came out in full force and we hung around while everything dried out. We hiked through two great forests before getting to a cafe. Barely able to walk on my ankle and thoroughly cooked by the sun, I hitched into a town for the night to rest up. The next day, my friends did the same and the five of us hitched into Auckland to avoid the massive amount of road walking that surrounded the city. Right On's friend had offered us a place to stay for the night so we met up with them and they cooked us an awesome dinner. The next day they gave us the option of staying another night and having a BBQ or staying another night and having a BBQ. So we stayed again and ate tons of food. Now we head back out on the trail on Christmas Eve to meet back up with our larger group. It's a rainy morning but we're hoping it clears up for a celebration tonight. Merry Christmas to all who I wish I could celebrate with. My trail family makes it easier to be away for the holidays. Kilometer 662.

Life Might Be Perfect

Martin and I left Paihia the next day and caught the ferry across the bay. It poured on us for about an hour and I was beginning to dread the day when the sun came out and dried us off. We entered a new forest and bush wacked for a long while before I realized Martin wasn't behind me and I was lost. I tried to find the trail for about 20 minutes when Martin finally came out of the forest. Together we were lost for another hour before finding the poorly marked trail again and walking 4km down a river. We popped out of the forest a few hours later and had to endure some dangerous road walking. I was still trying to catch some friends so I pushed it and did 44km that day, which Martin's feet weren't too happy about. We spent the afternoon climbing steep hills, swearing, and laughing our asses off. We got to a campsite where we met three other tramped who had hiked the PCT in 2013. We had dinner and got to know each other before drifting off to bed. I woke up the next morning early and packed up. I was going to put in another big day so I left the rest of them at camp and got moving. After getting lost on three separate occasions, they caught up to me and I decided to stay with them for a bit. We stopped on the road to grab a cold soda and found out about a sea kayak trip that would take us through part of the trail so we looked into it. Wanting to rest our feet for a day and still make progress, we decided to go for it and made our way into the next town where we would start the trip the next morning. On arrival we ran into my friends and got them to come with us on the trip. We had an absolute blast. Splashing each other, messing with each others rutters, and laughing all day long. My abs hurt from the hilarity of the day. We got back on trail and hiked down to a beach where we set up camp for the night and spent the evening swapping stories around the fire. I woke up early the next morning to catch the sunrise, which was spectacular. We got moving and made our way through an incredibly gorgeous section of trail. My achilies started to hurt me on the way down and I knew it wouldn't be a good thing. On the other side we hitched into town and got some food and a resupply before heading to the holiday park to sleep for the night. The next day we got up and walked into another town where we are hanging for the day and losing motivation to go on at all. My ankle is still killing me so I'm enjoying the rest. Hoping it goes away soon. Kilometer 420

I Never Want to Hear the Word Forest Again

I left Ahipara and headed away from the beach and into the forest. Finally it felt like real hiking. I was lucky and had an absolutely gorgeous day so I hiked late into the evening. Just before camp I ran back into my Swedish friend Martin and we decided to camp together that night. After an 11km road walk, we got to camp and set up. After walking on the pavement for so long my feet and joints ached. I remember lying awake hoping the pain would stop until I reluctantly drifted off to sleep. The next morning didn't look too good. I opened my tent to an incredibly overcast day and dew covering everything. It didn't help that when I read my trail notes it said we would be reaching the highest elevation in the northland and to expect clouds and rain. As we ascended the mountain the rain slowly started and got worse and worse with what seemed like every step. We left the road and entered the forest and were immediately struck with a mud puddle for a track. Trying to climb a mountain in the mud might be one of the most frustrating experiences I've had. We slogged through, trying to avoid the mud as much as possible. It was impossible. It seemed as though no one had been through here in years and the plants and trees closed in to where you were bush wacking. There were no views, only trees, and I began to feel incredibly claustrophobic, like I would never see the sun again. It was an 18km section until we would be out of the forest but the sign at the beginning said it would take us about 8 hours. I thought that was impossible. There was no way that it could take us that long, we were both strong hikers. My water bottle was ripped out of my side pocket by a branch that I swore at and as I stepped down to pick it up, I shot mud all over the mouthpiece. Great. Four hours in, after smacking my head on branch after branch that was hidden by my rain hood, slipping and falling all over the place, and reinjuring my shoulder and hip, my positive attitude had dissappeared. This was hard and I couldn't help but dwell on how miserable I felt. I was completely covered in mud up to my ass and the rest of my body was soaked from the rain. I remember mentioning to Martin that if it was really going to take us four more hours, I was going to kill myself. Suddenly I took a step and half of my leg was gone in the mud. I pulled up and felt the strap on my heel slip off. Shit. I was about to lose my shoe. In a panic, I rolled up my sleeve and plunged my hand into the seepy mud. Looking back, I should have chosen the hand without my watch on it. I grabbed a strap and ripped upwards as my shoe, and a few pounds of mud, flung out of the ground. I sat there for a moment not knowing what to do with my mud covered shoe that wouldn't fit on my foot or my now mud covered arm. Many explitives later, I got my shoe back on. Unfortunately there was nothing I could do for my hand. We kept moving. I could feel my shoulder swelling but I had to keep using it to keep myself upright and to help on the steep muddy slopes. The pain made me nauseous and all I could think of was getting out of this forest forever. Seven and a half hours later we emerged to a deserted road so we had to road walk to the next road. Covered in blood and mud and completely soaked to the bone, we looked at our trail notes for what to do next. We were advised by some locals to not enter the area in wet weather due to the many river ford's in the next section that became very dangerous I'd the water level had risen. We were at a loss for what to do so we tried to clean ourselves up with baby wipes. A car came by and asked us if we needed a ride. We didn't know where we were going but we definitely needed a ride. They were on their way to Paihia, where I has stayed before starting the trail, so we went there. After a very long and hot shower and some pizza and beer, we were able to make a plan to slack pack north on the trail we had missed. We woke up the next morning to the most gorgeous day. I couldn't believe the drastic change in less than 24 hours. My positive attitude had returned and I was excited about the day. We crushed the miles fairly easily and got to where we could hitch back to Paihia. A private tour bus picked us up and we got to talking about what we were doing. Not only did he drive us all the way back to town, but he made a few stops on the way so we could see some waterfalls in the area that weren't on trail. Even taking us to his house that overlooked the falls. The day definitely revived my desire to keep going on this incredible journey. Tomorrow we take a ferry over to the next section of trail and keep heading south!