On the road again...

42 dehydrated dinners prepared and assembled, 8 food parcels packed and posted, every item weighed, and weighed again for another trial pack, things spread all over the floor waiting to be finally stashed in the Osprey packs. News arriving that there are slips on the tramping access road in Richmond which our son Sam and his partner Lorraine are scheduled to travel up to meet us. Oh dear. We hope they make it, we really want their company over the Richmond range -and that night’s dinner and our food parcel!

It will be a lovely change for us to have company on some sections of the South Island trail. Our nephew-in-law Adi is meeting us at West Sabine Hut, and accompanying us over the Waiau Pass, and on over Harpers.

We wonder if we will catch sight of any Paradise Ducks in the South Island – they were like a talisman for us in the north where we saw them almost every day. We worry about how our bodies will hold up over two and a half months. I have nightmares about the rivers and Rob wakes up in a sweat dreaming about Mt Rintoul. But at the same time we are itching to get going again.

Not sure where and when we will be able to post to the blog again – it could be some weeks away. But in the meantime, it’s on with the boots and off we go in the teeth of a cold southerly to Ship Cove, destination Bluff…

North Island - last words

On one of those days when we were trudging along a road with nothing better to do, we compiled a list of all the types of accommodation we had stayed in during this journey:

Tent, cabin, holiday home, motel, hotel, hostel, gypsy caravan, caravan, beneath a beach bach balcony, friend’s house, family’s house, lodge, DOC hut, convent, scout camp and woolshed. Never under the stars – maybe the South Island will lend itself to this.

I stumbled upon this peculiarly apt quote by Suzanne Aubert when we were staying at the convent in Jerusalem on the Wanganui River:

        “Life is a journey by road
        On the way we travel the dust is thick and the shade is scarce
        Let us know how to select the best place to halt,
        To bathe our eyes
        To shake off the dust that covers us
        And to wash our sore feet”

And I thought this was perfect for the day toiling over Colonial Knob:

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass;

it's about learning to dance in the rain."

So that’s the North Island, Cape Reinga to the south coast of Wellington. Have we really walked all that way? It seems unreal.

We couldn’t have got this far without those angels who helped us along the way – you were all absolutely brilliant and it has been awesome to have you share in our journey. Thank you each and every one of you.

On to the South Island we go in January. Until then, take care and follow your dreams.