Day 34 - a long day

Ngāruawāhia —-> Whatawhata 37km

I did not like today.

Maybe it was because I’d done a long day the day before and I was tired, or maybe it’s because I was a bit fed up on of being on my own, or maybe I just had a grump on. But this day sucked.

After saying goodbye to my wonderful trail angels (who absolutely did not suck), I set off towards Hamilton. The trail followed a cycleway alongside the river all the way into the city.

I wasn’t quite sure whether I was going to stay in Hamilton or not, I was quite keen to push on further than that but with my grumpiness I wasn’t sure whether I’d be up to it. The cycleway got dull pretty fast… not much to see except the grey concrete path and the river, at least until we got closer into Hamilton where there were some nice fancy houses to lust over.

I got into Hamilton just after lunch and headed to Bivouac to pick up some dehy meals. Expecting aircon as a reprieve from the boiling sun outside, I got the opposite - it was a sweatbox. I decided there and then that I wasn’t staying in Hamilton. It meant another 15km but looking at the notes and the map it all felt fairly straight forward (oh my naivety). The roads out of Hamilton passed through suburbs reminiscent of an English council estate. I stopped to do a proper food resupply in Dinsdale and couldn’t get out quick enough.

Out of the burbs and back into farmland, the trail headed along the roads until hitting an arboretum. I’m SURE there was a sign at the entrance directing TA walkers into the actual arboretum (why wouldn’t there be, it would be pretty to walk through) but half way in I realised I was supposed to go around. The signage in the arboretum was non-existent and I ended up walking up down around and back again several times trying to find the way out. My grumpiness level was rising fast.

I then hit a section of farmland I hadn’t anticipated. I’d thought the afternoon would be mainly flat, but this looked anything but. I  passed through a gate and entered a field flanked by tall metal fences either side, I felt like I was walking through a prison. The deer on the other side of the fence probably felt pretty similarly.

The trail passed through several other fields - up and down, up and down over hills, well at least I think it did, I lost the actual trail several times as it appeared the field boundaries had changed and trail markers had been confused.

I was about to climb a stile into the final field before the road into Whatawhata when I spotted two cows trotting towards me. When I saw how big they were I realised they were bulls. I scarpered back over the fence and sat on the stile watching them. They weren’t happy. One was charging his foot, the other was grunting - there was no way I was walking through there.

It was already 6pm and I still had about 4km to go. I was tired, hungry -  insert all grumpy adjectives here - I was them. I sat on the stile for a while and cried. The end of the day was so close but after 10 hours of walking today my brain couldn’t function, I didn’t know what to do. The crying helped. I snapped myself out of it and turned away from the bulls and walked along the fence in the field I was currently in until I was past their field. I then climbed over an electric fence and into the next field (which was maybe the world’s muddiest field) and then across - bypassing the bulls altogether.

I dragged my feet along the remaining 3k and literally stumbled into the Whatawhata pub around 7.30pm. The pub let TA walkers camp in their pub garden for free - amazing. But obviously I needed to wait for all the patrons to leave first…! The bar staff showed me to a back room where I could shower. I sat on a chair and for the second time today - cried. This time it was happy tears. Happy I’d got through the day and proud of myself for not giving up. I’d done 37km! But mostly happy tears that I could now sit down, have a cider with some pub grub and listen to the live music on offer before heading to bed.