Day 60 - cyclone Gabrielle

Palmerston North.

Getting my tent fixed was a failure. With the impending cyclone, all couriers between the north and south islands had been paused, so getting a new pole in time for my arrival into Palmie had proved too difficult. I now had to wait until I got to Wellington to get a new pole. Whilst frustrating, it wasn’t the end of the world - I’d mainly be staying in huts over the next section, so hopefully the tent and it’s broken poles could mostly stay at the bottom of my bag.

There was eight days of walking from Palmie to the next on-trail town - the longest stretch I’d done so far. I shopped for nine days, just in case I would have to wait out the weather along the way. I was heading into the Tararua mountain range, notorious for fast-moving, changeable weather patterns so I needed to be prepared to bunker down somewhere if it wasn’t looking good.

After all my chores were done, I treated myself to a trip to the cinema. It felt wonderful to do something so normal, just slightly weird to be wearing crocs and a puffa jacket.

The rain and wind from the cyclone hadn’t really materialised in Palmie today and I was a bit peeved that I hadn’t walked. It seemed that the cyclone had hit the north of the north island with all its force, causing endless devastation on the east coast but thankfully the south had come away relatively unscathed.

I had my second bath in two days, making the most of what would likely be my last proper wash in over a week…