Day 21: Whangarei Heads to Waipu Cove

By Elliot

Distance: 30km

The day started with an 8am boat ride across the heads. The other hikers and us were all looking out at the water, trying to see where the water taxi would come from.

The answer: it arrived on the road, pulled by a tractor. Once in the water we zipped across in ten minutes.

On the other side we walked on the beach for a while.

There was a tidal crossing we were supposed to do, but we were there at high tide, so crossing wasn’t possible. Instead we went around and along a bridge, which added a few kilometres to our day, and about an additional hour of road walking.

We eventually made it back onto to beach, but not before stopping for coffee and cake at a cafe.

It was interesting to see people out enjoying their Sunday at the beach, doing something normal and not trying to walk across a country. When I saw all those people, the thought popped into my head that they don’t have sore feet.

We got into Waipu not too late, where we bought some additional items for dinner. Then it was another 8 or 9 kilometres to the cove, often on roads.

I think we need to get better at deciding when to hitch a ride. There were ten-ish kilometres today of road walking that weren’t particularly enjoyable and that I think would’ve been easy to catch a ride on. But right now our default is not hitching, so I think we need to overcome a certain level of inertia. We also don’t have clear criteria for what we should hitch. I think we will figure it out in due time.