TA Day 71

TA Day 71: Thursday 27 February 2025

Junction Poads Rd / Gladstone Rd - Burtton's Whare Site

We were a bit tired this morning, and wanted to sleep as long as possible... But that made the morning quite stressful as we suddenly had less than an hour to get ready.

We had a quick small breakfast with strawberries and banana, packed our bags, made ourselves ready and then got in the car. Lynette drove us back to the junction Poads Road and Gladstone Road where we had been picked up the day before.

We started walking, and after walking for one hour Kim looked at her watch. In one hour today we had made the same progress as four hours the day before! (6 km)

Where the trail started we sat down on a stile to have a second breakfast, or lunch maybe? Pancakes with Nutella 😋 It was nice and sunny, and great to have a break.

We followed the trail through some pastures, and then a short section along what we understood to be an old tram track. It was quite flat here and therefore also a bit muddy. At one point Kim slipped in the mud and landed on her butt 😂 But soon we left the nice flat track and started to go upwards in the forest, all the way up to a view point, where we sat down for another rest.

Soon the NOBO Pedro, that we met yesterday, caught up to us. We talked for a bit before he continued. After some up and down in the forest we passed him soon again at a nice bench in the forest. He gave us a cookie - a new one we hadn't tried before called Krispie, which was actually really tasty! Some coconut in it made it very nice - then we continued out onto a gravel road. This gravel road reminded us so much of Sweden for some reason!

Suddenly a super cute shelter came up out of nowhere. Tokomaru / Ian and Frank's shelter. A bench with a roof, long drop, and inside there was an elevated wooden platform for a few sleeping pads to fit. Would have been so nice with more places like this along the TA!

We took a longer break here to have dinner, and Pedro caught up to us again. We stayed for a little while longer after finishing our food, and talked, before it was time to continue. The sun would set soon and we had another 1,5 hours to go to Burtton's Whare Site.

The way there went along a mostly nice and easy track, apparently a restorated old track, first built by a man called James Burtton. We arrived at the Whare Site just by sunset, the place where James Burtton's house once stood, and pitched our tent on the grassy open area there, hoping we were okay to stay there.

When we were doing so, we suddenly heard a bark coming from the other side of the river, not too far away. A deer? Or a wild dog? No, it was definitely a deer. Perhaps a buck.

But it stopped after a few times, before we had time to investigate. Instead we went down to the river to wash ourselves, before crawling into the tent and going to sleep.

These seeds are so annoying!

Today's:

Distance: 31.28 km

Ascent: 1097 m

Descent: 1025 m

Tent nights: 42/71

Weather: Sunny