Day 21: Mangawhai Backpackers to Govan Wilson Road (449-489)

As light began painting the skyline, I left Mangawhai Backpackers. I knew today was going to be a long day, so leaving around 5:30 am seemed to make sense. The long days in New Zealand are so wonderful for backpacking! I could only get in two thirds of my long days in Ohio if I didn't want to walk in the dark (which I don't, at least in the woods and on farmland).

It was an easy walk to the beach. When I went through Mangawhai I stopped at a public restroom that was pretty fancy. The door locked when you shut it and you could push a button to unlock it or it would unlock itself in 10 minutes. The bathroom also started playing music when the door locked, so I got to use the restroom to the sound of an instrumental version of "What the world needs now is love." At least I think that's what I was hearing.

The 15-kilometer beach walk involved a tiny 1-kilometer break to get over a rocky area. The trail has been very enjoyable, but the beaches are probably the most difficult for me (even though they are nothing but flat). The hiking umbrella is wonderful to use on them because it keeps me relatively cool, but walking on the sand can really beat my feet up. 15 kilometers is doable though. Hopefully there aren't too many more beaches longer than that on the remainder of the trail.

There were two river crossings on the beach. The trail notes made the first one sound more difficult and it was maybe ankle deep. Easy! I figured the one at the end of the beach would be easy as well. The tide had come in a bit since I started the beach so the river was pretty deep. I tired to figure out the best place to cross and chose an area where the waves from the ocean weren't making much of an impact. I clipped my PLB to my shirt, unbuckled my backpack, and started crossing. The water got deeper and deep and began to just touch my shorts. I thought I could see the sandy bottom as I took my next step, but all of a sudden my feet weren't touching the ground. Panic hit me for a second, but my pack was floating (probably thanks to my excessive use of dry bags for everything), and the water was about as calm as a lake. I took a few strokes and scissor kicks and my feet hit sand on the other side.

In no time at all I was out of the river and at the beach carpark. My wallet and clothes I was wearing were wet, but everything else was pretty good (there had been a hole in the baggie my wallet was in). It's nice that New Zealand bills are waterproof! And I guess a beach filled with lots of people and a lifeguard was a good place to learn my lesson not to cross a deep-looking river.

I ate lunch and dried out before going through the Omaha Forest. It took me a bit longer than it should have, but I ended up where I was staying on Govan Wilson Road around 7:45 pm.

Tomorrow will hopefully be another 40-kilometer day to Puhoi. We'll see how it goes.

Cows! Sheep run away from you when you try to take their picture, but cows will just stare at you.

Christmas mailboxes. This whole little street had mailboxes decorated for Christmas.

If you look off in the distance, you can see the beach I walked down.

Camping for the night on Govan Wilson Road