Days 13 & 14

Day 13

Helena Ridge Track to Whananaki (18km)

Dings last day with us! He’s planning on doing the TA in sections over the next year and a half and is leaving today to head back to Auckland.  I will miss him as he’s been great company for the last ten days or so. 

Well this was going to be my first shortish day to try to let the body get ahead again. How wrong could I be. It was short in distance only being 18km but with the exception of the final 2.5km was seriously up and down! 

Here’s what today has planned for me.

Overnight it rained very hard and was still raining on and off while packing up. This is the first day of packing in the tent and needless to say showed it. 

OSM bar and cuppa in tent, not my best selfie!

Off about 7.30, I think the lure of the promised take-out at the Whananaki store was motivation to get going despite the inclement weather. 

The trail left the clearing we were camped in and followed the ridge through the bush for a couple of km before ending on a road. 

Along the road we passed the 300km point on the TA, effectively 10% of the way to Bluff. 

Ding at 300km on TA

Me at 300km, feeling pretty good about this!

We then entered the Morepork Track (for those of you not from NZ the morepork is a native owl) the sign for which said 4km. I got my hopes up that we had 4km of bush track then perhaps farmland to Whananaki. No such luck after about 3km of pretty well formed track the TA route left the Morepork Tack and headed into denser bush with ongoing ups and downs and a few stream crossings thrown in for good measure. 

And here I was thinking 4.2km of bush.

View from top of Morepork Track back to coast we came from.

Every day I do a photo at 12.00 and post on our family chat (when phone coverage plays the game), today will be the last with Robin, Ding and I.

The last noon photo with Ding

Today’s the first day I’ve felt really jaded and my left leg is now cramping pretty badly. Could have done without the ups and downs but finally got to Whananaki at about 12.30, so took us the better part of 5 hours to cover 18km. 

Finally approaching Whananaki!

Alas the shop only sells “cafe” food on weekends. Choices today were anything deep fried or pies, so hedging my bets I had a pie and chips washed down with a Speights. 

Sadly said goodbye to Ding as he’s walking on a couple of hours to be picked up by his friend. 

Camp ground had no more cabins but offered me a “motel room” which seems just like a cabin but does have a bathroom. 

I used the afternoon to catch up on domestic chores, washed my clothes (in the sink), dried tent etc and caught up with blog notes. Unfortunately again pretty limited coverage so struggling to post blog. 

Not wanting another early take out dinner and looking forward to a change from dehydrated food or rice, Tahlia and got bacon, eggs and chilli beans from the store and cooked for dinner. Sort of felt like breakfast but nobody’s complaining.

Breakfast for dinner

By the time I’d had dinner left leg was getting worse so not sure how tomorrow will go. Without decent internet it’s also bloody hard to play amateur doctor and try to diagnose what the issue is. I’m suspecting a IT band issue or some other tendinitis type thing but it really is a bit strange. Will break out the industrial strength diclofenac!

Day 14

Zero day on Whananaki - a bad/frustrating day! 

Well last night didn’t go too well! Leg got sorer and sorer as the night wore on and it became apparent to me that to carry on today would likely result in more injury and be counterproductive. 

First thing, Iwent and told Tahlia and Robin and said the goodbyes then asked the camp ground lady (really nicely) if I could stay in the same room for another night. She was very obliging and even gave me a free internet access pass. 

It had to happen at some stage that an issue would arise that caused me to have to stop for a day (or possibly more) but I really didn’t see this coming.  I was feeling really good until the uphills yesterday and despite some real pain in my left leg felt it would go and all would go on swimmingly as it had been. 

I’ve made the improvised version of a foam roller (towel wrapped around a drink bottle from the recycling bin) and am rolling the leg regularly. It’s still very sore but I think a bit better so here’s hoping. 

The enforced day of rest has not been totally wasted. I did an audit of food and given I might be bit slower for a few days decided I needed to resupply at the local store. Pretty limited selection (chocolate, uncle Ben’s rice, peanut butter  and porridge) but at least I won’t starve!

Whananaki is the home of the Southern Hemispheres longest wooden foot bridge. Quite an impressive structure although difficult to get the full scale as it has a hump in the middle which prevent looking all the way along it. 

Whananaki foot bridge

The camp ground here is run by a couple who used to run the local DOC camp and have ten children, all home schooled. The lady apologised to me this morning when she was a bit short with a couple of them, frankly if we had ten children I’d be short all the time! 

One of the highlights here would seem to be the local take out opening on Saturdays. It’s actually only open from 10.00 until 5.00  but when I got there at 12.15 the area out front looked a bit like a Ute dealers lot with a queue of, generally big bearded guys in hunting jackets and boots, waiting to order. Had two toasted sandwiches which was a nice change from the usual fare. 

Whananaki T/O at lunch

A bit like The Castle,  I’m sitting here in “serenity” while just across from me the local farmer and the camp ground manager are driving in posts. All happening with kids running around and an increasing no. of spectators. No OSH in this part of the world. 

Serenity!

As readers will detect I’m  pretty bored and feeling a bit dejected doing the recuperation thing here. Frankly, I’m rambling on just to fill in the afternoon! So on that note I’ll finish and look forward to tomorrow being a better day.