TA Day 3: Saturday 21 December 2024

Invercargill - Riverton (Riverton Holiday Park and Camping Ground)

We didn't rush this morning because we had planned to just walk 8 km. When we opened the curtains, rain and a gray sky greeted us. None of us felt excited today but walking in the rain is actually not always too bad.

After just a few kms we caught up with a man wearing just a small red backpack and a gps transmitter. A TA hiker? We weren't sure. But after not too long he caught up with us again, and he was indeed hiking the TA, but with a so-called "slackpack" (small daypack).

It didn't take long until we had reached the 8 km that we had set out to walk, and it was certainly too short. We had some ideas to maybe pitch our tent on the dunes somewhere along the beach, as we had read other hikers doing so.

We kept going. 5 km walking. A few minutes of pee break and sitting down. 5 more km walking. And the views the same - the ocean to the left, dunes to the right and a long beach in front of us that faded into the mist. And the TA hiker that we met, with his red daypack, far away in the distance. Sometimes closer, sometimes further away...

We passed a river crossing that we had read about. We were there 2-3 hours after low tide and it was mid-calf deep. No problems at all. And here somewhere we had thought about camping... But with the constant rain the idea wasn't exactly alluring. We had walked halfway to Riverton now, maybe we could make it all the way? At least we could give it a try, we thought.

And so we kept going. 5 km walk. A few mins of rest. 5 km walk...

We passed yesterday's distance and from here on it all felt a little bit harder. Our feet hurt quite a lot, and the tide got higher which made it more difficult to walk with less hard and flat surfaces.

But we pushed on. Managed to go to FreshChoice and resupply for the upcoming week of hiking through Longwoods and Tākitimu. We also booked accommodation, and thought we deserved something nice after such a tough day, so we booked a double room, which also had a private bathroom! Probably one of the best accommodations we've been to so far (but honestly also one of the more expensive, usually we've had accommodation for less than 127 NZD).

Before crashing for the day we made ourselves a ready-to-eat pizza and butter chicken with rice. Then had some "Gooey Caramel Cookie Pie" with cream.

Today's:

(Ascent and descent from the topo map, since the gps showed 10 times more...)

Distance: 35.11 km

Ascent: 163 m

Descent: 132 m

Tent nights: 0/3

Weather: Constant rain all day.