nolife

I’m in Pihia.  That wasn’t on my list originally!  I guess I should catch up first.

The tour was fun.  Willie [(the tour bus driver)] drove us on the small bus.  [(A minibus, as opposed to a full-sized coach bus)].  1 older dutch woman, an older British couple, an American man, four Japanese twenty-somethings, a British 20ish [woman], and me.  First to the Kaori Kingdom where we saw furniture made from giant trees.

Then with another little stop to buy postcards, we stopped at a bay to eat lunch.  Tapa-something.  This was meant to be my final campsite on the tramp so I asked Willie about it.

He gave me great information.  Where to buy clothes if my bag didn’t turn up, where to buy the stove fuel, and stuff about the track.

After lunch came the Cape.[It was] somewhat anti-climatic having arrived there by bus, but still neat.  I saw more of the track and better understood the route.

I spoke briefly with the British girl & the Dutch woman about the 800 year old tree at the point.  We wandered around some, trying to get a better look, but never could see more than a branch.  When we got back to the bus, Willie showed us the brochure – the picture was exactly what we saw!

We left the cape and went to the Te Paki stream, my jumping off point if I were headed out.  There we climbed these huge sand dunes and slid down them on plastic sleds.

I went first, oddly enough, and scored a great run.  I went twice more, and by the 2nd we were all going down together, cheering one another on.  Bonding through adrenaline.

We loaded back up and headed to 90 mile beach.  Its actually only 67 but 90 came from a settler method of estimating.  Apparently, as a rule of thumb, wagon trains could make 30 miles a day, so when it took them 3 days to make the journey they called it 90 miles!

I managed to get a bit sick though, and missed the start of the beach.  Overheated & dehydrated.

We eventually made it off the beach.  We were doing 100 – 120km down this sand – it was wild!

[I've] got other stuff to do.  Back later.