Day 33: Rangiriri to Remember Then - Kauri Lane (745-765)

I rang in 2017 by experiencing another fancy toilet like the one in Mangawhai. It was a public bathroom right by where we camped and played the same elevator-music-version of "What the World Needs Now is Love." A good tune to start the morning and the new year.

Once we were all packed we began the road walk to Huntly. There was a trail that left and met up with the road, but we were worried it would be like yesterday's trail. We could see the trail the entire day from the road, so we decided that traveling the road would be easier and much faster.

A few kilometers into the day we hit kilometer 750. That means I've completed one fourth of the trail! It's hard to believe how quickly it has been going by.

When we arrived in Huntley a little after 1 pm, we stopped at the countdown. I grabbed a popsicle, poweraide, mango and avocado. Then we walked a few minutes to McDonalds where I got a coffee and french fries. Once we were all sitting for a bit, Erinn texted Judy, who runs a B&B called Remember Then - Kauri Lane. She drove right over to pick us up so we didn't have to walk the last 4 road kilometers to her and her husbands place. Their B&B is wonderful and they let TA hikers camp there for $15.

It was so nice to sit and relax for a few hours before making dinner. Judy has an old atlas she bought at a book store and she has people staying with her mark where they're from on the atlas. On the inside cover she has them write the date, their name and the page number where they marked. There was someone really close to where Erinn and Trevor are from in Alberta, so we were able to find the other person who had written on that page on the cover and see when they had arrived (last August).

She had a really neat photo book of the Te Araroa by Mark Watson. It follows the trail southbound so it was really neat to see all the places I had walked beautifully photographed and to see the places I'll be experiencing before the end of April.

Before I knew it, the sky was dark and it was time for bed. Tomorrow to Hamilton where I'm taking some zero days!

The fancy toilet from the future in Rangiriri.

My 750 kilometers (1/4 of the trail) happy face selfie 😊

An advertisement for a meat pie at a gas station. So New Zealand!

I forgot to take a photo before we all took down our tents, but this is the nice patch of grass we camped in.