We’ve past so many awesome beaches over the weeks but often we’re pushing to get to the next camp or wild spot to set up the tent before dark, so we’ve not been having as much fun in the sea as we should! So today as soon as we arrived in Hahei we pegged it down to the sand :) I’ve been eyeing up the Lilo-ness of our bed mats for some time and after a bit of bobbing about it quickly escalated into a game of International Kings of Surfing! Wahoo! ;) Cookie nailed some big waves first so I had a lot to beat. But with a lucky set of awesome waves I think I covered the most distance. I think points go to Cookie for style, and to me for volume ( of screams )… Roll on the next competition!
Woo hoo! This was brilliant fun, worked much better than I imagined :) I’ve often wondered while fording some of the rivers over here, whether our Therm-a-rest Neoair mattresses would take the weight of our rucksacks and be usable as a makeshift raft? Would mean we could swim across while holding on to the Therm-a-Pack raft, even if it was too deep to ford like the Okura River.
Well them Neoair’s support the weight of me in the water, so I think the answer would definitely be yes! Probably need a bit of structural support by lashing the poles on too, but I think we’re on to a winner, bring on the next big river crossing :D
We usually carry Meths to cook on with this super lightweight handmade stove. But our first section was actually one of the longest between towns along this immense beach. So to conserve fuel we decided to test out the special inner cone and pegs you use to convert it into a wood burning stove. Worked pretty well! Much faster than boiling up with liquid fuel. Although it gets the pans pretty dirty, it smells amazing cooking on proper fire :)
The stove is a Caldera Ti-Tri by Cascade Designs. It’s made out of a thin sheet of titanium that rolls up into a tube, very light weight. I think the thing I like about this stove the best was the ordering process! Got an email back from the bloke who makes them straight away, he apologised that he was on-trail, in the middle of a hike, but he would make my stove the following week when he was back in his workshop. Felt good to order from, and get it made by a real person.
SPLOSH! Right in the chops! A big comedy wave smacks us straight in the face. That’ll learn us for standin around takin pictures ;) Waves were hitting the side and bouncing back, colliding with incoming waves, occasionally producing a surprise bad boy, smacking the side walls behind us with such force it left a perfectly dry Nicky outline where I’d masked the spray. Damn it! I’ve just washed my hair for the first time in five days and it’s immediately laden with salt and seaweed, and I’m looking like that octopus faced fella put of Pirates of the Caribbean… Bugger! … Only 4 more days till I can wash it again :)
Whoops, got the camera a bit wet taking this shot.. Surprise wave much bigger than expected, thankfully most of it went over my head and smashed Nicky against the back wall ;)
Our boots are in tatters, but they made it the whole way. 3000km, or there abouts ;) Unprecedented for Te Araroa boots i think? Amazingly rugged these Zamberlands, and super light too. They took a BEATING, let me tell you. Almost bald, but rugged as hell, they’re the Bruce Willis of hiking boots.
Are we glad to be Finished?