Day 46. You aren’t vegetarian, are you? Homestay Extraordinaire. December 18, 2015.

43 km
Whanganui City km 1375 to Santoft Road km 1418

I woke up this morning not sure what I was going to do. Zero? Slack pack? Short day? Long day? I decided to just leave the hostel, walk and see what happened. Alex and Helen had big plans to get to Bulls and were leaving the same time as I was. The others were all doing different slack pack options.

Whanganui seems like a really nice hiker town. One I could have spent more time in. A zero here would have been nice. There is a section ahead that is being logged and only open to walkers on weekends. So putting in some big days will get us there on Sunday. The rush is on.

Once we were outside of town we were on a busy road for 20km. Not fun and seemed to take forever. A few kilometers in on this road Nathan and Nils zipped by on bikes they had borrowed at the hostel.

I missed the possum hunt.

What a way to slack pack. Once we got to Turakina the day changed for the better. We stopped at a cafe for a great lunch and turned off the busy road for 8km. Then we were on the best beach of the trip. Black sand. Shells. Pretty little rocks. Lots of driftwood. Almost no wind. Perfect temperature.

Time to leave the beach

Earlier in the day when we were on the busy road Alex called a homestay place listed on our trail notes. Best move of the day. Maybe of the whole trip. He also asked if we could get a lift once we were back on the road if it was getting late and we didn’t want to walk all the way into Bulls. Jo was ok for anything. It was wonderful to have this to look forward to at the end of the day.

Jo picked us up (of course we called when we got to the first road) and brought us to her home. What an amazing place and amazing family.

Mike greeted us with “you aren’t vegetarian,  are you?” Dinner started with a huge crayfish. Mike had caught it a couple days ago on the east coast. Then lots of venison… steaks, backstrap and sausages…. salad, potatoes. Hannah made a raspberry cake. Plus orange chocolate chip ice cream. Plus a chocolate cup cake.

Greenhouse hot tub

After dinner I played darts with Conner and Helen put nail polish on Hannah’s fingernails. We talked til I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

Two of the kids weren’t home so I got to sleep in Charley’s bedroom. Thanks Charley.