Whaitangi HP to Paihia Holiday Park

3.5 km

With a strictly scripted schedule, we have time to fritter away in the morning, a rarity. We attempt some fuzzy staticky calls over the crappy WiFi, do a little reading, writing, and planning. The ducks send an ambassador to the office to extend their tent site another night.

We walk a few kilometers into the town of Pahia, which is perfectly compact- most places a hiker would want are all on the same block. Best of all- guess who is sitting and drinking coffee at the top of that black! John, one of our favorite faces to see. (Have I explained yet how thru-trails have rips in the space-time continuum that allow you to see other hikers over and over again, even when you travel different speeds? It’s true.)

There’s an awesome library in a small yellow and burgundy buildings that looks like an old house, and finally, they have great WiFi. The grocery store is right next door, and although it is only 3 aisles, they have lots of fresh hummus and salad, which is what I want. Plants! I am dairied out. I am in of need weggies, hold the pot roast.

We linger on the lawn, after our resupply. At 3:30 we can’t risk the tide coming up anymore, so we walk along the beach and rocks below the coastal cliffs for a few kilometers. I look far down the oceanside and it looks like we are already running out of space for walking up ahead -dang, why didn’t we leave sooner?- but the trail turns up and leads to a contour high above the water, the narrow rocks not a part of our path at all. We follow this high terrace all the way to the next Holiday Park, where we pay to camp yet again. I am ready to be off the Holiday Park circuit and back into free, at large camping.

We all set up our little mobile homes and cook our little dinners. Tomorrow will be early to catch the boat for high tide.