Day 16 - enter 2023
Whananaki —-> Tutukaka holiday park 28km
I was a little slow off the mark this morning after the wines the night before, maybe also because I’d woken up on the floor. My air mattress had developed a slow leak a few days ago which had been just about manageable until now. The holiday park wonderfully had a pool so I took it for a swim and tried to find the leak. 10 minutes and many a weird look later, success! I let it dry off and patched it up as best I could.
Spirits were high as we set off towards Ngunguru - a small town further down the coast. Problem was we didn’t have any accomodation there yet… with it being new year, everywhere was fully booked and the trail angels we were hoping to stay with were out of action due to a broken toilet… we messaged a few people along the way and kept everything crossed it would be sorted by the time we got into town early evening.
The route today first took us over the Whananaki footbridge - the longest footbridge (apparently) in the southern hemisphere. Without the weather this would have been glorious, but with 40km winds pushing us precariously close to the edge it was scarier than it should have been.
The trail then took us along a beautiful coastal track, first by stunning golden public beaches and then past darker private beaches - the sand only accessible to the houses right up on the cliffs above. It was fairly easy walking with incredible views along the way.
After lunch, the weather started to close in on us. We pushed on down the country roads and came into Ngunguru around 4.30pm. We still hadn’t found anywhere to stay… we resupplied at the store and headed to the town cafe to grab dinner and work out a plan.
There was a holiday park off trail around 3km away in Tutukaka - this would be the back up plan if we couldn’t find anywhere closer. Our legs really didn’t want to walk 3km more. Note to self - always book accommodation around the holidays! Steph and Milton pulled up to grab food too - they’d been wandering the streets asking the motels for any last minute availability but had no luck. Steph had now put a message out on a local fb group to see if anyone would let us camp in their back garden!
We knew we needed to be at the holiday park before 7pm if we had any chance of staying, and it was an hours walk up a few big hills to get to Tutukaka. With no better option locked in, we said our goodbyes and reluctantly trudged up and along a dodgy 80km road to get to the holiday park. We turned up exhausted, ready to just lie down and pass out. The campsite owners were having a beer when we knocked on the reception door with just 15 minutes to spare. “You look like you’ve had a day!”. We explained where we’d come from that morning and without any further chitchat they handed us the keys to an empty cabin. “You guys need this, no extra charge, happy new year.” I almost cried!
They pointed us to a 12 bed perfect little cabin just outside the camp kitchen - totally empty except for us. The extra kms up the hill was now totally worth it. We emptied our bags, charged our gear and planned the next few days before falling asleep on opposite sides of the room - got to take advantage of the space!
