Day 61: Tieke Campsite to Jerusalem (1265-1297)

Sunday, January 29

I got half a podcast in while packing, and everyone had their canoes ready to go around 8:30. We started with a morning flotilla and stopped at Ngaporo Campsite for lunch. Marjolein and I were a little cold, so we decided to paddle after lunch while most of the group flotilla-ed. We were all planning to stop at Puraroto Cave. We scoped out the upper cave, which is filled with a soggy mud floor, and I figured out we could walk from the upper cave to the lower cave without moving our canoes. The lower cave had a beautiful waterfall. As I was walking back to our canoe, everyone else showed up and I told them where everything was.

Most of us walked into knee-high mud in the upper cave and then we walked to the lower cave to rinse off in the pool around the waterfall. I swam to the waterfall and climbed up the side a bit. The ceiling was cathedral-like and awe inspiring. It made you feel small and the water was so refreshing. I stuck my head under a side spray of water from the falls and jumped off and swam back to the edge of the pool of water.

Eventually we all pulled ourselves away from the waterfall and paddled to Pipiriki, where Gareth was getting off the river.

On the trip there we kept seeing goats. We've been seeing them on our entire trip down the river, and they are quite fun to watch.

When we arrived in Pipiriki, we all got out and walked up to the Whanganui River Adventures Campground. They sold snacks in the office and the ladies there filled us in on how to find the convent at Jerusalem where we planned to stay. They were so nice and fed us some fresh fruit. There's no way we would have found the convent as easily without their help.

When we left Papiriki and said goodbye to Gareth, we did lots of flotilla-ing. For awhile Marjolein and I were with Vicky, Remi, Kristen, Dave and Nate. Eventually Chespa and Collin joined us too. Before we knew it we saw a steeple and realized we were at the convent.

It was an incredibly steep walk up to the road and we had to unpack our canoes in a chain, passing barrels from one person to the next. We tied all our canoes together and to a tree and hoped they'd be there in the morning. Creya and Sara's canoe has had a small leak all trip, so we were most concerned about their boat, but it would have been extremely difficult to carry the canoes up and it wasn't supposed to rain.

Julia, Puff Puff, Kristen, Sara, Creya, Remi, Vicky, Marjolein and I stayed at the convent and everyone else camped in the yard of a woman who lets TA hikers stay there for koha (usually a donation).

The convent was so neat! There were informational signs all over, a chapel, a little library, a sitting room, a kitchen, bedrooms, flushing toilets with toilet paper, outlets, and upstairs there were two big dorm rooms with showers. We all shared a room and were excited to shower. Downstairs they had a tv with a vcr player. Two of their movies were a Fast and Furious Movie and the Passion of Christ. An interesting combination.

After we all paid for our beds, we walked down to the shop to buy snacks before walking back to the hostel and making dinner. I had eaten a lot between Papariki and the little snack shop, so I mostly just nibbled on snacks I had left. Tomorrow would be a long day so I decided I'd eat two dinners tomorrow.

It was getting late and I was ready for bed. We had stayed up a bit later than normal since we were inside, not being eaten alive by sandflies. And we wanted to start early tomorrow to paddle about 50-kilometers to a campsite.