Day 31 – Ahuriri Base Hut to Ahuriri River

In the morning, I gave Layton a message to text to Roxane, both wishing her a happy Valentine’s Day and warning her I would be out of the woods a few days after the date I had given her, since the last section was slower than I expected, and I still had the Ohau range to cross. I had plenty of dinner food left, though, and Layton, who was going home in a couple days, gave me some of his excess supplies to pad out my lunches.

The walking today was entirely on the metalled Ahuriri River Road, walking south to rejoin the main Te Araroa Trail.  It was sunny but the morning chill lingered all day, making for a comfortable walk. Along the way I had two realizations. First, I wasn’t running as late as I thought I was. My camera, on which I rely for date and time information, was set one day in the future. My other realization was that in order to access the Ohau range, I needed some permissions I had neglected to phone ahead for. Fording the river could have bypassed the private land, but it was much too deep here.

In addition, two friends, Blair and Suzanne, were coming to the South Island soon with Roxane. I decided I would walk out early and return to do the Ohaus later.  By this time it was rather late and I cowboy camped on the banks of the Ahuriri, a place with an inexplicably low sandfly count.