Te Araroa – Day 33

Old Church to Wellington

14.3 miles

Mile 1041.3

I got started just after sunrise, grabbing a cappuccino from a cafe in town before joining a river track.

The river track led me to an estuary pathway and finally to the beach.

After walking the beach for a couple hours I veered off trail to grab a train in Paekakariki to Wellington. The next 40ish miles is mostly road walking through Wellington suburbs, so I decided to skip it in order to reach Wellington before the post office closed so I could get my box. Today is Friday, so if I walked the whole way I’d get into town Saturday, forcing me to take a zero day to wait for the post office to open again on Monday. No thanks…

An hour later I’d arrived in Wellington. First, I hit up a Countdown to grab a resupply for the next week, and a resupply to ship ahead to St. Arnaud. Shopping done, I made my way to the post office where my box was waiting. I pulled out my fleece and two new pairs of socks, before shipping it ahead to Wanaka, and shipped my food to St. Arnaud.

Chores done, I headed to Gilmer Hotel to check in and drop my stuff off. I spent the rest of the evening exploring Wellington, it’s a neat city!

Back in my room I booked a ferry to the South Island for tomorrow morning. Plans made, I zoned out to some Netflix before hitting the hay.

Cheers!