21/3/22, Day 105, 105km, Total 2935km
Elevation Gain: 1092, Loss: 1138m
A huge challenge to do the final 100km in 24 hours.
Len dropped me at Ahipara at 8.30am in weather that looked OK. A couple of hours later the rain started along with a very strong easterly wind that was blowing sand straight at me from the sand dunes on my right. By midday the rain stopped and things looked promising but then around 5pm the rain returned and continued, off and on till around 3am. That made for very testing conditions – there were a lot of places I would rather have been during that time. Fortunately the temperatures were pretty good although I was cold the whole time.
Len drove up the beach to meet me at 5pm with some much needed nourishment and fluids. I was very happy to sit in the car and rest for 30 minutes while consuming therm. The first real rest I had since 8.30am.
I was able to maintain a 5km/hr average speed with next to no stops until about 11pm. Then the tired old body was telling me to stop and look at the moon or stars or the waves like about every 5 minutes. Sure the moon and stars were nice to look at when the clouds parted from time to time. I was really lucky that it was a full moon and even when behind the clouds the moon provided enough light to illuminate the beach. So I didn’t use a torch. Of course sometime this worked against me – a patch of damp looking sand would sometimes be a knee deep stream.
At 10pm I could see that I was getting close to a feature known as the Bluff. I knew there was a campsite there but the chances of finding it in the rain were very low. Then surprisingly I saw a light up in the sand dunes – I assumed someone was camping there so I hoped they would leave their light on long enough so I could find the shelter. It was pitch black as I approached the campsite which resulted in walking through more knee deep puddles – that sure didn’t matter in the state I was in. As I got closer I realised that the light was from a solar light permanently mounted near the toilet block. It was carefully positioned to be visible from the beach. Thank you DOC for that little consideration. Finding the cooking shelter was easy and relishing the thought of a few minutes out of the rain I barged into it, almost tripping over a large tent that had been put up inside it and using up all of the floor space. It was quite a nice fit. The two girls inside were somewhat surprised by my arrival and were quite worried they would have to get out of bed and shift their tent out into the rain. They were TA SOBO hikers with a leaky tent but only a few weeks of the Trail left to do. I had a nice chat with them for the 30 minutes I was there, reviving my electronics. My watch had gone completely flat and shut down due to the wet sleave of my raincoat touching it. The phone needed recharging and I had to remove it from its case so it would work in the rain. Plus I ate some food. It was a welcome break. Also while I was sitting there the clouds parted and the moon came up. Things were looking good. As always when we meet SOBO walkers we compare notes on what is ahead and they (or Sophie) suggested I could have an issue finding track markers in the dark at Twilight Beach. She wasn’t wrong.
Shortly after the campsite I stumbled across the rocks of the Bluff where the waves meant there was no sand to walk on and care was required to rock-hop in the dark. The moon was bright enough. This was an hour before high tide.
At 1am with the tide starting to recede I was still having to walk on the softer sand above the high tide mark. Then vehicle headlights appeared probably 10 – 20 km away. I flicked my headtorch on with a flashing red light. The van approached me at great speed and there was not a lot of good sand I could use to escape without climbing the steep sand dunes. The van skidded to a halt beside me. Inside the nice warm and dry vehicle were five rather drunk Maori dudes who were just out having some fun on the beach. They enquired about the water level at the Bluff when I passed there two hours ago then drove off. I had been warned by the locals that this could happen but sure didn’t expect it on such a miserable night.
I trudged onwards trying to resist the urge to stop every few minutes to admire the waves, the stars, etc.
I felt really grateful that with Len’s support I was able to embark on this challenge with a very light pack. I only carried food, water, a change of clothes and my powerbank. So my pack was probably only 4-5kg. But even that was feeling really heavy by the early morning hours.
