Day 21 - chill

Mangawhai Heads rest day 0km

Waking up knowing we didn’t have to walk today was an amazing feeling - made even better by the fact it was still pouring outside.

We had a bit of TA admin to do, but we’d given ourselves a midday deadline to be done with jobs so we could properly relax for the rest of the day.

We got a lift into town with our Airbnb host on his way to work and first stop was breakfast. We were beyond excited for a cooked brekkie, oats from a plastic bowl was getting pretty tiresome. Two minutes after sitting down at Brewed As, the waitress came over and greeted us with “are you guys doing the trail?”. What!? Even after a shower and scrubbing our clothes do we still smell Iike hikers!? “It’s the crocs.” she responded when we asked her how she knew. Damn it - looks like we won’t be blending into society any time soon.

After a delicious breakfast we reviewed the next section of trail, made a provisional plan for km and campsites (provisional because we have yet to stick to any section plan we’ve made) and stocked up on food at the local Four Square. Our host was wonderfully heading back home again for lunch so we jumped in the car with him to save us the 3km walk in the rain.

We spent the rest of the afternoon watching telly, napping and praying the rain would be gone by tomorrow.

Disclaimer - this is the only photo either of us took this day. Josh mending a hole in the bottom of his backpack…!