Day 74 – Levin rest day

Date: 8 December

Today was a genuine rest day in Levin. The weather was bad, just as forecast, and so not a lot was done. During the night the rain was so hard it woke most of us up, and Alex said it was the heaviest rain he has ever seen here.

When we woke up though the rain wasn’t too bad. Everyone except Alex walked into the centre of town and went to New World to get some supplies.

At one point on the TA Peter had avocado and chocolate on a wrap and ever since I’ve wanted to try it myself, but all the avocados at New World were hard as a rock so it will have to wait. I’m not carrying avocados or anything unnecessary up the Tararua Ranges tomorrow.

Ethan and I then went to McDonald’s where I had hotcakes and coffee for breakfast. Ethan reckons that the hotcakes here are much better than the ones in the US, where they apparently taste like plastic and are barely edible.

While the two of us were walking back to the holiday park, the owner saw us walking and she gave us a ride back to the park, which was a nice surprise.

There was a lot of sitting around using phones and watching TV in the cabin today as it was raining most of the time which stopped anything else from happening. We did spend a bit of time mocking the accent of the Australian guy on the fishing show on TV.

I also threw out my old boots. It was sad to see them go… especially since the grips had gone but otherwise they were in really good condition.

Alex and I braved a walk into town in the afternoon when the rain stopped. I got an ice cream and together we got a Jim Beam and Cola 12 pack… I had two of them and by the end of the day Alex had eight. Amazingly he didn’t really seem drunk at all.

On the walk back we did get quite wet as the rain started again.

We complained a bit about getting wet but very soon after we got back the rain got torrential again… so can’t complain too much.

After some dinner we were in bed relatively early, but not before Charlie and Peter rearranged the cabin and put the mattresses on the floor. Firstly because they’re 6ft3 and 6ft4 and so don’t fit well in the beds, and secondly because the bunk beds are not secured to the wall and almost fell over.

We’re going up into the Tararuas tomorrow if the weather plays ball, and looking at the mountains this evening suggests that it might do. But one thing we dont have is a ride to the point where we left the trail, so tomorrow it is either an awkward 10km hitchhike or nearly two hours of additional walking. But we can worry about that tomorrow.