So, this morning I got up bright and early, grabbed my bounce box, and headed down to the NZ Post. Oh, right. I'm in a commonwealth country. One that makes sure everybody gets holiday time. It's the closest working day to Boxing Day. Dammit.
I wasted three hours of hiking time going to NZ shipping businesses (equivalents of UPS, FedEX, and ABF) and some desperate attempts to get people at the hostel to ship my bounce box, I wandered back into MacPac (one of NZ's REI equivalents) where one of the employees had at least been kind about telling me they didn't provide more than overnight DOC passes to the huts a few days ago. Thanks be for trail angels - Tracey was at work again! Oh, man. There is nothing like finding one of those genuinely caring types when you've flown off to the other side of the world and are attempting some good ole foolhardy adventure. Tracey not only got my gear set up for the shipping, she also just threw in MacPac's discounted shipping rate and ensured that the hostel I was sending it off to would hold onto the package until I get there. Bless her; I wish I could have bought her a few beer.
Around 11:30, I finally headed out of Invercargill for another long day of tramping. Thankfully, some outdoors bums gave me a 3-4k hitch along the road down to Oreti beach (after enough cars passed me by that I had mostly given up hoping for a ride to span the 8k of road). Oreti was pretty awesome. There was well-packed sand, lots of cool looking birds, and a surprising number of other folks out enjoying the beach (at least for the first 5k). I hit my half-ish way point, a river crossing that the trail notes warned could be tricky at high tide, right around 3. You guessed it - high tide! Well, I could follow the trail notes suggestions, wait until the tide receded (maybe 6) and hike the huge mileage remaining in the dark. I could also cross around dinner and camp at this river since it was the last non-ocean water source until Riverton (hopefully, it wouldn't be too brackish). Or I could test the waters and continue hoofing it to Riverton.
Right about the time I had decided to hop in halfway between the ocean and the last bend in the river, some off-roaders with snorkels drove up. I hopefully lingered, and right about the time my toes touched the water, one of the guys in the cab called me over. Hooray!
Not hooray, they were afraid that even with snorkel, their cars would be flooded. They did give me a reasonable idea of where to cross though, and so I bravely unclipped my pack, and waded across quite chilly, crotch-deep water. I had a quick lunch on the far side, and headed off to follow the coastline for another several hours. Right after the river ford, I had ~3k of pebble walking. I suppose I should be grateful for the way it wasn't going to fill my shoes with wet sand, but my shoes were already pretty well covered in that department. The pebbles and seashells were beautiful, though. Deep maroon spirals of shells shimmered all along that segment along with tiny iridescent teal shells and a rainbow of other little guys.
Finally, after 4+k of town/road walking and 20k of beach walking, my knackered self made it to the point on my map that looked like I was entering Riverton. Of course, there was a small bay between me and the town. Oh, and though the mouth looked pretty narrow, it turned out to be a nice river inlet. And I had another way-too-many-km to go upstream to the nearest highway, cross the river, come back to the shores, and then go all the way up across town to get to my hostel. Have I mentioned that my feet and joints were still smarting from the 30k walk I took yesterday? Have you ever walked 30k on sand and pebbles with smarting feet and joints? Lets just say that it's a good thing that I like going for walks and really like exploring new places outdoors.
Just a bit before 10pm (with the sun just starting to set - gotta love extreme latitudes in the summer), I bumbled my way in to the Riverton Holiday Park (think KOA-style lawn). The manager was an incredibly sweet lady who directed me to the kitchen, the showers, and the tent site of my first fellow TA NOBOs, Sam & Ann. Sam & Ann are a French couple who seem pretty reserved and pretty well beat, though they seem to think that at least the latter is also true of me. They might be right, tonight.
I've added a few more blisters today, my ankles are getting pretty swollen, and I've still got the weird rash where my socks cover my ankles. Nothing a good night of sleep, a good meal (if I can stay awake to finish it), and some washing can't help with.
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