Day 6: Havelock to Pelorous Bridge - 'Sticky Tar Day'

Today goes to show i don't have good days everyday. I was so over it today but that was brought on by a 32 degree day, ridiculous by NZ standard and 22 kilometers of road to walk. 12 of those without any shade whatsoever or water sources worthy of being filtered. I never want to see another rocky gravel road with changing camber every 30 metres again. Or I guess until it's the next time...

I got a sleep in today, thanks to there being nothing we could do until Havelock Four Square opened at 8am. We were there right on opening to resupply our next sections food. 10 days worth. It was good having the queen Charlotte Track section as a learning curve. I now know how much I want to eat during the day and what is easiest to pack and carry. Plus having spent a week with other TAers who all gave great tips on recipe and meal options.

For this section my meal include:

Breakfast: 1 sachet of quick oats, dried cranberries, trail mix and a spoonful of peanut butter.

Lunches: wraps with parmesan cheese, hummus (yes I've tried it and a plastic tub of hummus can last unrefrigerated for 4-5 days), tinned chicken or salami. Or wraps with peanut butter and chocolate nut mix (think of it as a sweet crepe).

Dinners: instant mashed potato mixed with a potatoes bake cheese sachet, garlic butter, salami and dehydrated peas. Couscous mixed with a couple of different packet soup mixes to make it interesting. A Backcountry dehydrated meal which i divide into 2 for 2 nights and then a whole lot of mi goreng which i mix peas and peanut butter in.

For snacks I've gone with one OSM bar a day, some peanut m&Ms and trail mix. I surprisingly have found i don't really eat snacks when I'm walking, other than a few snake lollies to keep the sugar levels up.

Oh and coffee! Not going without that.

With loaded bags we packed up and hit the road again but not before having a meat pie and real fruit ice cream for a late breakfast, we hit the road, literally.

It was a fun 4km walk on the narrow half of metre of bitumen road shoulder. We'd step off the road every time a caravan came along as they'd get awfully close. Finally got to turn off onto a side dirt road and thats where the fun began.

We were no sooner on this road when Tim, the Kiwi guy, who has carried lamb chops and bacon, beer & wine in his backpack stopped and asked if one of us had our phone readily available to take a photo. I questioned the scenery because it wasn't exactly that interesting. But no, the photo was to be of these powerlines that Tim took great pleasure in. I now have powerline photos and never got Tim's number to send it to him... So here it is.

The rocky dirt road went for kilometers on end. Was i expecting to be this hot in new Zealand, no. Was i expecting to find nice shady trees to cool under, yes. Did I? yes but could I get to them? No. They were on the other side of the electric fence which lined the road. So i just powered through, my feet burning, the soles of my feet burning, my arms burning. Good times.

After 12km we came to the end of the dirt road to be met with a melting bitumen road that stuck to my shoes and my walking poles. It seemed like it would never end. As i was pulling my shoes unstuck on every step i remembered a song the kiwi boys i worked with in Emerald in Central QLD used to sing when the temps got above 40 degrees. All i remembered was the line 'sticky tar day, sticky tar day'. Which was used to describe a very hot summers day in NZ. It was in fact a sticky tar day.

I'm complaining but in all of this we were walking through beautiful farm land, through cow paddocks, which we attentively kept an eye on every cow eyeing us off as we charged through their patch. I think we also climbed over about 30 styles. Do that with a 15kg loaded pack over and over, your knees love it!

I finally found a tiny bit of shade on the field and quickly unclipped my bag and threw it down. I also threw myself down on the grass very quickly and took off my shoes to give my feet some rest. What I was to realise, was the grass is home to spiders. I was so spent that I let one crawl all over my legs because I was just to exhausted to sit back up and brush it off.

Following more farm walks we passed through irrigators. Were they spraying effluent on the fields? That's to be found out. Did i care when it sprayed me? No, it cooled me down.

Alternating between cow paddocks, paddocks of suedes, paddock of fodder we then hit a field of maize which we bashed through, on the edge of a river bank through long grass. If this has been back home, this would have been prime snake territory but thankfully none here so I just ploughed through the field.

After 21kms we came across a beautiful big old shady tree and with 1km to go, it didn't matter we all collapsed in the shade and laid down on the long grass. So close to the end but that last km seems like it's 100.

After a day that seemed to go on for eternity, I've ended up at Pelorous Bridge and the DOC manager has let us TAers stay at a day site not meant for camping. Which means we have this beautiful grassed area and river/swimming spot all to ourselves. There's four of us camped here tonight. The others all took the more expensive campsite option with hot showers and a kitchen. I'll make do with just a toilet and the view and the river for a shower.

I've had the most refreshing swim in the Pelorous River. Cold but not freezing and enough to cool the feet right down! As i write I'm watching Laura and Tim appear in tyre tubes having floated down the river. Normally I'd be right there with them but i wasn't walking an extra kms today.

Ren x