Lazy start today.


I was still tired from yesterday. Unfortunately my feeling was right. My right shoulder felt a little bit sore already yesterday night. After the hole in my t-shirt had become bigger and the shoulder straps of my backpack rubbed on my blank skin the entire day I knew already yesterday that my skin was a little bit ruined. But when I took a picture this morning to check on it I was actually surprised how bad it was.


So I had to strip my hip belt and my left shoulder strap tighter to loosen up my right shoulder strap. Walking with an unbalanced backpack is no fun. But luckily it was light today.
Today 20 kilometres beach walk and 10km road were on the agenda – but all flat.


Beautiful beach. Have you ever had 15km of beach completely to yourself? First time for me so far today.


Unfortunately the tide was not on my side today. I started walking 1 1/2 hours before high tide which forced me into the loose sand for most of the time. I was lucky that it was cloudy today so it was not too hot.
Wet shoes and fast or dry shoes and slow? I decided for the chicken version for this stream crossing ?


I don’t think I have told you about this so far. Either it shows how passionate I am about it or maybe everyone has little tricks to push himself. If I look on the map and know it’s only a short distance – less than 500m – then I start calculating in “golf” to make it easier to measure and maybe also to make it easier to get over with. So if it’s 250m I just vision a good drive and know how far to go. 500m is a Par 5 – good tee shot, and two more to get to the green. Gives me a very good indication on how far to walk and how long it will take. I guess I am weird and I miss golfing…
Then I circled around Te Arai Point for the last stretch on the beach.

 

Then another 10km of unpleasant road walking into town. Thankfully for the last couple of km of Swedish guy give me a ride into the town centre. First stop pharmacy. I bought a second skin spray and some plasters to cover up the wound tomorrow.


Mangawhai Heads is a beautiful spot with an nice inlet!


I pitched my tent with a beautiful view. Also my office for tonight was a very nice one.


Special moment today. I started the last stack of maps today – 20 more to go. Never will change my stack of maps again…

Met a couple on the street, John and Maria, who invited me for dinner tonight. So I went up the street and had a nice evening with home made chutneys and egg pie. Fed their pets, two eels, and had nice chat. Maria originally being from India and both of them well travelled had a beautiful place with own little bush garden, view over the bay and John managed to plant fruits in the garden which gave them 365 days of fresh and home grown fruits – mandarin time, baby ?
I am also invited back to breakfast at 6.45, so Inhave to go to bed now ?