Day 5: Christmas Day

We woke to sunshine and greeted everyone with Merry Christmas befor sitting down to a Christmas Breakfast where we all said what a typical Christmas would look like for each person. It was so special hearing about how everyome spends their Christmas. Mine would have normally involved bacon, eggs, waffles, fruit salad and trifle for breakfast but here I am today with oats, cranberries, nuts and peanut butter.

It was a slower start this morn but we were on track at 8:30am eager to walk the remaining 3km of the Queen Charlotte track. It was a nice walk out all the locals going in for their morning walk all saying Merry Christmas to us.

We made it out and the sight of the Anakiwa jetty and the colour of the water looked so appealing. There was a family with kids jumping off the jetty. We all debated whether we should jump in to celebrate the end of the track but we were all a bit hesitant knowing we still had 20kms to walk and to be honest were a little worried about chaffing post swim. 'when would we ever get to do this on Christmas again?' I mentioned and with that settled it. We were no sooner all stripping down to our underwear and making our way out on the jetty. With a local mum and her kids watching, counting us down with a 1, 2, 3 we jumped into the most pleasant cool turquoise coloured clear water.

Drying off on the jetty, more and more local families, of all generations turned up and it was soon made known to us that Santa would be coming to visit by boat. A local church group brings Santa around to all the bays. We had to wait for Santa.

It was the most lovelies, purest thing being amongst all these kids and their parents all eagerly waiting for Santa to come motoring across the bay. He then threw fresh cherries and lollies out to us all. How kiwi! With Santa know headed back offshore we put back on our clothes which was probably good considering a kid asked why we were all in our undies and not our swimmers. Donned our packs and headed on the Linkpathway for a 20km walk to Havelock.

The walk was so hot but very picturesque. We were walking alongside the road through farms with all sorts of animals. Just no where near enough shade for us so when we came across the Linkwater Fire Station we stopped for a rest and refilled our bottles with clean water!

Continuing on it was such a pleasant day wandering up in the hills alongside the Sounds again. This time the water was such a different, lighter shade of blue. It was just stunning!

We made it into Havelock at 4:30pm. Laura, Conny and I booking ourselves into a 3 bed dorm/type room for the night so we could shower, wash our clothes and get a good night's sleep before waiting for the Four Square to open in the morning for us to restock. Tomorrow we head off on a 9-11 day section up through the Pelorous Valley and Richmond Ranges. It's meant to be the most challenging section on the te araroa. I can't wait for it. Im looking forward to really challenging myself physically and mentally with this section especially having to carry a pack with 11 days food supply, something I've not done before. There are some pretty exposed places and gnarly ridgelines so hoping for some more good weather look today. Hoping to reach St Arnaud sometime in the first week of January. So my next update will be after I've made it through.

Ren x