Day 13 - on the water
Waitangi —-> Sheryl’s place, Waikare
3km walk, 17km kayak, 3km walk
I was really excited about today. About the kayaking yes but mostly about not having to squeeze my feet into shoes all day. The route had us paddling from the southern end of Paihia beach to a little inlet & community called Waikare. It was a gorgeously sunny calm day - we couldn’t have had better conditions.
We walked the 3km from the campground to the kayak hire shop picking up coffee and brekkie on the way - any opportunity for an alternative to oats and we’ll take it. Milton had gotten into Waitangi late last night and Steph was getting dropped there so we were all paddling together.
We left our packs at the kayak hire - they would wonderfully be dropped at the other end for us to pick up in a few hours. I was expecting normal kayaks but instead we were presented with huge sea kayaks - with a rudder! With hardly any wind, we sped through the water.
We stopped at a little island along the way for a break, I was finding the whole thing wonderfully relaxing. Josh was in charge of the steering however so I don’t think he would have the same opinion as me!
We left the islands and entered the mangroves, the big cliffs of the bay and mega mansions now replaced by farmland and the odd ramshackle house. We pulled up to the end of the inlet around 1.30pm, swapped our kayaks for our packs and headed off up the road to our home for the night - Sheryl’s Place - our first trail angel.
Accomodation is quite scarce around this section of the trail so people rely on “angels” - wonderful kiwis who open their homes and gardens for hikers to spend the night. In return for letting us camp in the yard, Sheryl had left us a list of jobs she wanted help with (not mandatory but I felt guilty just asking to stay so I’d offered our services in return - Milton, Steph and Josh had no say in this, sorry guys).
Sheryl wasn’t home when we arrived but her friend Peter was; he was mid rebuild of a picnic table when we walked into the yard. “I’m doing this for you!” he laughed, “but mainly because Sheryl promised me fish and chips”.
Sheryl’s place was right on the river, and was about as off grid as you could get. She got her water from the spring at the top of the hill, bathed in the river, used a long drop composting toilet and had only just had solar panels installed on the roof; before that she used a freezer at a friend’s house and had a small gas generator to power a fridge. She told us she was having to learn how to use electrical items again - she hadn’t always lived like this but it was a conscious choice to now.
After a freezing cold bath in the river in our clothes (we dried off in the heat in about 10 minutes) we got started on some jobs. I knew what tea tree smelled like but hadn’t the foggiest what it looked like… we took our best guess and spent the next hour stripping the leaves into a pot praying that we were doing the right thing.
Embarrassingly none of us knew what geraniums looked like either so we couldn’t get started on that one, and we had no idea which plants she wanted watering so we just carried on with the tea tree and made sure to pat the cat real good.
We spent the rest of the evening finishing off the jobs when Sheryl got home (tea tree was correct thank goodness but we had no where near done enough!) and chatting to her and Peter, learning about their lifestyle and eating our dinners. Peter brought out some home made chips as the sun was going down… how they got them to taste like proper chips from a British chippie I still don’t know… delicious.
