Te Araroa (day 2 and 3) - Twilight Beach to Ahipara / mile 62

Fairly uneventful day with good milage on the clock. I decided to wild camp in unassigned area (it's technically illegal on Te Araroa to do this but there was no official campsite for the next 8 miles, they are mostly paid as well).

Towards the end of the day I was getting so bored with the constant sand, water and wind to the face experience that I started to look what items has been washed ashore, here's a couple of better finds:

+ a bottle of Suntory Whisky from Japan (but I doubt it actually swam form there)

+ a carcass of a dolphin (or small shark)

+ tub of Saxa iodised salt from Australia

+ tub of silicon sealant from Australia

+ a log of wood with hundreds of mating clams attached to it

+ several cans of lager made in Auckland

I also found barely breathing bird with broken wing washed ashore, there was no way it would survive, I just moved it inland so it would have a peaceful last moments.

Several Camino style shells has also been found, I drilled a hole in one of them using my hiking pole and I'm planning to find a suitable piece of string tomorrow to attach it to the backpack.

There was a lot of seagulls picking up shells from the beach, flying up high with them and dropping them on the hard sand in order to crack them, it was quite amusing to look at and many birds were using this technique. It usually took them three to four tries to successfully open the shell.

Campsite was quite peaceful and completely sheltered from the wind which was a welcome change, I could hear birds and grasshoppers doing their evening concerts with a gentle background melody of the sea.

Third day was a repetition of day two, going through a beach, ocassionaly waving at passing cars and buses (sic!) Around 2pm I stopped at Waipapakauri Holiday Resort and had an ice cream (two in fact) sold by Kay a local Kiwi, we had a chat about summer, Christmas and Christmas during summer. She just had a chat with two Americans and they were all laughing but she couldnt remember the contents of that conversation. It started to rain, I decided to wrap up and push on towards Ahipara.

I arrived there just before 6pm, feet were killing me, microsand from the beach got to my socks and shoes and was grinding them ruthlessly all day. I've booked a camping spot for $24 at YHA Ahipara Holiday Resort, had a shower and used their cooking facilities to make a hot meal. Then it was lights out, tomorrow trail will be a mix of hitchhiking and hiking by the looks of it, the 90 mile beach is over.