I don’t know if it’s the heat or the dehydration but these seagulls are certainly smelling fishy to me. No matter where you are there’s always two of the buggers out in front of you edging about, eyeing you up. You can never get near before they shoot off, only to be replaced a few minutes later with two identical ones further up the beach. We’ve started to think there are only two on the entire of 90 mile beach and they’re being redeployed along the length for surveillance purposes. We are clearly displaying very suspicious behavior being the only people on the beach not caning it along on a four-by-four, so I’m imagining the seagull authorities are keeping a close eyeon us should we start muscling in on their shell fish. Either that or they suspect we’re packing chips and ice-cream in our backpacks, and they are waiting to catch us off guard before they launch their attack on us…
The Seagull Conspiracy
Luncheon to munch-on
Classic example of lunch here - tortillas are great for pack-ability, loads better than bread and keep for ages. With Philadelphia cheese, not my favorite cheese I’d have to say, but this stuff never goes off! Not sure how long it will last unrefrigerated in a pack, but I’ve carried it for a week or more through burning hot desert and it’s always held up well.
Day 5, Sand Dunes – Utea Campsite
5th day of walking now. I was finding it pretty hard. Really tricky navigating on this stretch of beach as there were no clear landmarks to tell you how far you’d come or very accurately where you were. We were hoping not to miss a nook in the relentless sand dunes that might have taken us up to the campsite and water tap we were in fair need of.
Spotted some kind of gannet or penguin creature. We’ll have to look him up and find out what he was! Comedy little fella. This was also the day we found the dead sting rays. Fascinating to have a close inspection but also really sad to see them spark-out :( I guess old age might have got them? But it had been pretty stormy in the night so possibly they were washed up and stranded. Sad.
Utea Park, Hukatere
Chilling on some firm warm concrete after a long stroll. Our first proper shower on the trail. Washed hair never felt so good! Cookie bagged the outdoor armchair… But not for long…. ;)
Utea Park had a great newly built common living space with kitchen and showers for all the campers to use. Brilliant to have a comfy sofa to sit on after sitting in the sand dunes for days :) And a tap with water in it - Yes!
Utea Park is a new campsite, just opened this year, it totally exceeded our expectations! Massive communal living room with sofas and dinning table, even electricity for charging our gadgets, and most importantly running water.
Easy to spot from the beach, just look out the distinctive mound (which the park is named after), when you come off the beach at the obvious exit, just turn left and you’re there.
Day 5 – Friendly Kiwi Folk
We got chatting some some friendly kiwis who were out for a few days fishing and boozing’ together :) They were chatting about shark fishing and how there’s ‘a big one’ out there right now… Scary! :D They were a good laugh and offered us a couple of ice creams that were very welcome indeed! Cheers Pam & Nic, Murray & Shelley! Hope to bump into you again later on the trail :D
The Utea owners were lovely too and popped over with a bunch of home grown potatoes. So far we’ve found Kiwi folks to be super friendly and kind hearted, which is fantastic news for a couple of ‘homeless’ roaming Londoners like us ;)
90 Mile Beach Holiday Park
Ham Beans??
When we left Utea Park to walk for the day we were so looking forward to the next set if luxuries ahead including possibly a shower with warm water, a hot meal and BEER! :D
We set off super early and did our planed day’s miles before lunch! But horror of horrors, on arrival there was no cafe, pub, or food shop! Oh nooooo!
We’re walking pretty early in the tourist season so it seems all the summer places aren’t fully open yet. So we were a bit scuppered for food to be honest! But managed to bag some baked beans from reception and the fella there very kindly dug us some frozen bread out of his home freezer for us, and we managed to persuade him to sell us one of his wife’s bottles of wine too… Success! Phew! Thank goodness.
These baked beans though. Very unusual. Slightly ‘exotic’ you might say…. They come in Ham Sauce…. Ham sauce?? Yes - sauce made of ham…. 0.5% ham anyway. Obviously someone somewhere thinks that ham us such a selling point over just regular beans, that it’s worth putting slices of it on the front of the can…? I have no idea what went on in that marketing meeting, but it was clearly someone’s leaving do the night before!
Foot Watch #2 – Blister Surgery!
Ok, so this is a bit of a minging one! Have a good old look at my blister ;) Apparently this is the best way to sort them out - pull a needle and thread through it, and the thread acts like a wick and sucks out all the bad-ness… Or so Cookie said… but he was so busy filming it that he neglected to point out at you’re supposed to leave the thread in not pull it straight through! Haha … So you’ve got the full close-up footage to look forward to as well… Yey ;)
Seems to have worked though. It’s a day later now, and nothing hurts, and no holes in me foot. So, top tip there hikers!
We’ve both ended up with blisters on the our little pinkies, and both on our right foot? I’m thinking perhaps the gradient of the beach down to the sea is the culprit, always putting more pressure on the right hand side. A days rest in Ahipara should sort them out, then the next section we’re on to more varied terrain.We Done It!
Well… Section 1 anyway ;) “90 mile beach” - DONE ! That’s Cape Reinga down to Ahipara, straight down the west coast.Finally got our first trail beer at Ahipara, no pubs though.. Had to carry a big box of them a mile from the liquor stove to the motel before we could finally crack one open. Well done Nicky, first section under your belt.‘Includes free use of a Cat’
Introducing our new mate Romeo. So named apparently as he roamed over one day and decided to stay, rather like the littlest hobo ( and a little like us ) :) Rest day today - yeeha! The best kind if day… Amazing mini apartment here at BayLinks Motel. And feels all the more homely with a free friendly cat to play with. A furry friend never goes a miss after a hard day.
Fisherman’s Platter
It was a 4 mile round trip to the only restaurant in town.. But worth the effort because it was also the only bar in town! Had to go for a seaside themed celebratory dinner this time. Bit too deep fried for my liking, but tasted better than the sausage I had yesterday.
