Days 167-174, Epilogue 2: Familiar Faces

After joking about how trudging through muddy forest for 7 days on Stewart Island was our idea of relaxing, we were looking forward to resting our feet and bodies for real. We hung out in Invercargill for a few days, waiting to see Ben, our giant German friend, one last time. Meanwhile, we tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to start eating a more normal amount of food again.
Liz visited a local thrift shop and bought a pair of jeans and boots for $10. Strangely, seeing her dressed somewhat normally again was actually way more emotional for me than finishing in Bluff. All of the sudden we couldn't just pick up our bags and walk into the woods anymore. It was one of those small, surprising things that drove home the fact that we were really on our way home.

 Ben showed up on the 10th, and it sounded like he wasn't looking forward to finishing off the trail either. We hung out with him for an evening, then enjoyed an awesome pancake breakfast that he whipped up for us. Take note, when a 2 meter tall thru hiker makes you pancakes, they will be pancakes sized for a 2 meter tall thru hiker, rather than for a normal person. For once, we were not hungry for a while after eating.

Bye Ben!

We said goodbye to Ben after breakfast, and wished him luck on his last day of walking, and whatever comes next for him. Then we hopped on the bus to Dunedin. It's too bad we didn't get to spend more time there - it seemed like a cool city. We ended up spending a half day at the Otago Museum, and really enjoyed it. We particularly liked all the exhibits on flora and fauna - it helped us to identify a lot of the mystery birds, bugs, and plants that we encountered along the way but we never able to put a name to.

The afternoon of the 12th, we caught a plane to Auckland, and met up with Mark, Liz's dad, and Margaret, his wife. They were just finishing up a tour, and we were invited along to the final dinner at a fancy restaurant atop the Mercure Hotel in downtown Auckland. We felt slightly out of place in our hiking attire, but everyone made us feel welcome, and the food was delicious.

The next morning, we took a ferry over to the Coromandel Peninsula, and spent the next 3 days with Mark & Margaret. We had a lot of fun while we were there. On our first full day, we took a short ride on a narrow gauge train that was built by a local potter to carry clay to his workshop. He later extended the line and turned it into a tourist attraction. It was surprisingly interesting. After that, we headed up to the top of the peninsula with a really interesting tour guide. He had been a stock trader for years, but ended up giving up what sounded like a wild lifestyle to start a tour company. It was a beautiful trip, and we heard all sorts of interesting tales about mortgage derivatives and the history of the area.

One of 4 tunnels on the track

There were several large walls made entirely of wine bottles. Might explain the existence of the train.

Rainbow from the observation tower at the top of the track

Pretty coastline with wildlife dots (a dolphin pod) in the middle of the water

More of the coast

A Pohutakawa tree. When they fall over, they can set new roots, which leads to strange, sprawling trees that appear to have several trunks.

The following day we headed over to New Chums Beach. The weather was threatening, so we kept it short, but had a nice walk up and down the beach, and a nice lunch by the ocean. That evening we ate, for the second night in a row, at a delicious Thai restaurant close to our hotel.

Rock climbing at New Chums

Rope swing on the beach

On the 16th we had to say goodbye to Mark & Margaret. It felt like we didn't have enough time with them, although it was great to see them and swap stories from our travels. Luckily we'll all be back in Massachusetts soon. Mark ended up treating us to just about everything while we were together, which was a great surprise!

While we were there, Liz and I tried our first trail run, and found it to be a lot more fun than normal running. This could be something I could get into. Maybe I will be one of those crazy people we see running by on the trail sometimes, always making me think "hmph, must be nice to not have a pack."

Next stop, National Park, to try to do the Tongariro Crossing. Unfortunately, the weather does not look good. The remnants of a cyclone will be parking itself off the west coast, and sending lots of rain, and worse, wind, into the area for the next few days. Fingers crossed for our last bit of walking!