Day 20 - in the clouds
Waipu Cove —> Mangawhai Heads Airbnb 26km
We were on a mission today. The plan was to capitalise on the weather slightly easing off before another round of heavy rain came in tomorrow. We’d booked an Airbnb in Mangawhai Heads to hide out for a day. It was all we could think about - a real bed, washing, Netflix!
We rain geared up again and made our way along the km of road back to the trailhead. The morning’s trail was along and up a road but we must have seen two cars the whole time, we were pacing it along. The rain faded as we rose higher, but continued to get wet as we walked through the misty clouds. We didn’t have a clue what we should have been looking at - all we could see was a blanket of grey.
We then turned onto a forest track. A dense thinly marked trail that mainly consisted of mud. The trees protected us from the rain that had started up again but it was sopping under foot. We kept repeating what was at the end. Real bed. Washing. Netflix.
We came out of the forest track covered in mud (we’d both fallen over multiple times) and made our way back down the farm road. Finally the cloud had cleared and we saw what we could have been seeing all morning - gorgeous views along the headland over the coastal beaches.
Josh’s knee was killing him after all the up and down of the morning so he decided to hitch from the main road straight to the Airbnb.
My afternoon took me up a steep hill and through very hilly farmland - I bumped into the farmer who told me about the hoards of walkers who’d come through the past couple of months. Not so many recently - Josh and I were definitely in the latter group of SOBOs. On his land I climbed over the most majestic stile. It’s probably too early to be getting excited about stiles isn’t it…
After an hour or so I came out onto the Mangawhai Cliff walkway. A stunning coastal track with 180 degree views all down the cliff line. If only it wasn’t so somber and I wasn’t so worried about being blown off! Plenty of fancy houses on the path down to the beach…
Despite the weather there were plenty of people on the beach, lots of doggos bringing me sticks. My feet were really starting to ache by this point, and I felt wet to the core. I really didn’t have the energy to be throwing sticks. Bed. Washing. Netflix.
I trudged the final few km off trail through Mangawhai to the Airbnb where Josh was waiting. We emptied our now sopping bags and turned our home for the next two days into a make-shift drying room. My feet had turned to actual prunes, I feared it was going to take more than a couple of days to dry them out!
Our wonderful Airbnb host brought us dinner from the deli in town and we cozied up in front of the TV for the first time since Kaitata. The rain got heavier, the wind got stronger and we did not give one iota.
