Not a great start to the day. No sleep from 1am and being sick. Some sort of stomach bug had me.
We really wanted to get to Lumsden before the weather turned extremely wet, so it was a case of forging on despite a churning stomach and lack of energy.
The trail went through a farm. A farmer approached in a mule type buggy. She asked what walk we were doing and went on to say that she finished the South Island section at Bluff about a month ago. Her name was Nicky. She would like to do the North Island in the future. We had a good chat about the Te Araroa trail and the people we had met. For her, the most memorable parts were the people she met on the walk. We would have to agree - people and their stories bring richness to the journey.
Nicky had been in tourism prior to her TA experience. Now she was working in farming and loving the outdoors. She used the word ‘transformative’ as to what the trail had done for her. Karl had the best time patting one of the dogs on the back of the tray. We had a photo and said our farewells.
Rain began to fall, so it was jackets on time, and heads down walking. Karl kindly carried my part of the tent to help compensate my lack of energy. By early afternoon I felt ok enough to eat a few Weetbix and raisins.
We had booked a cabin at the Lumsden campground. How glad we were to reach it right on darkness. It had been a ‘dig deep’ day of 33km. Our last 3 days combined walking distance a staggering 106km. We would welcome a rest day or two, while the weather unleashed.
The rain became steadier into the night. The overall forecast for NZ was wet, wet, wet. The West Coast under a red rain warning and a predicted 750mm of H2O for the next 48 hours.
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