Day 106: Marahau to Awaroa Campsite (37.5 km)

Wednesday, March 15

We woke up around 7 and got ready to hit the trail! We had slept well and it was a little chilly out so it was hard to make ourselves move but we eventually all got up. Reception opened at 8 am, so we planned to be ready to go then. After paying for the cabin and to park our car for a few days we put on our shark buffs and hit the trail.

The start of the trail is only a few hundred meters from Old MacDonald Holiday Park, so it was really convenient. We passed some people getting ready for a kayak trip and started hiking. The trail was so nice!

We started shortly after sunrise, so the temperature roses really quickly. We stopped at a beach pretty early on to de-layer.

Around lunch time we got to the turn off for Anchorage campground. Lauren and Sam were trying to get away from Alaska for a bit, but the turnoff was a nice place to sit and eat a quick lunch.

We took a detour to see Cleopatra Pool. Some people we saw on the way told us it wasn't worth it, but I'm glad we didn't listen. It was fun to climb around the rocks in the river and if we had more time it would have been fun to bask in the sun. Lots of people were laying out on the rocks.

After a few more hours of walking we took a detour to a little beach right before Bark Bay. We stopped just long enough to give our feet a break and continued our march to Awaroa. That was the campsite we had a reservation at, we needed to make it there because there was a tide-dependent crossing right after the camp and the first low tide tomorrow was right before sunrise.

We passed Tonga Quarry. I failed to notice, but Sam and Lauren saw the people camping there had lots of good looking cheese and beer. Then we passed Onetahuti Campground and did a little beach walk. There was a teeny river crossing on it - Lauren and Sam's first New Zealand River crossing. Little shells were scattered on the beach too.

At the end of beach there was a really fancy boardwalk. It was golden hour and we were getting closer and closer to Awaroa. But this must have been a new section of trail. It was nice, but it wasn't right along the water, so it was an uphill end to our first long day of hiking. It wasn't a big hill, but after walking over 30 kilometers, any incline can get tiring. And it was pretty late so we were hungry.

Around dusk, just before 8, we arrived at the campsite and set up our tents. Lots of spots were taken, but we found room next to a picnic table.

The campsite was really nice. There were flushing toilets and a cooking shelter, both with sinks with running water. It had the tide times hanging up in the cooking shelter too, which would have really come in handy if I'd forgotten to check high and low tides.

We ate dinner and walked up to the bathroom to brush our teeth. I got back to our tents before Sam and Lauren and a possum was eating peanut butter bagels they had left on the picnic table. The crazy thing didn't even leave when it realized I saw him. He just stared at me until I grabbed a nearby hiking pole and pretended to charge at it. Even then, he just stayed a few feet away on the edge of the tree line. I tried lunging at him again to get him further in the trees but he didn't seem to care.

When Lauren and Sam got back, I told them what had happened. Even though the possum went away, I figured he would leave us alone once we had our food inside our tents. There were two guys sleeping in uncovered hammocks. If I were a possum I'd go after their food - no tent to fight my way into.

We got into our tents and I looked over the maps for our hike tomorrow before going to bed.