Te Araroa (day 26) - Mangahuia Campsite to War Monument / mile 740

"If you'll piss on that lemon tree, it will make it grow faster." Roger

Tongariro National Park has ended and the connecting trail to the Wanganui National Park today was a bunch of roadwalking.

It started with finding the way out of the forrest onto a busy asphalt road leading to National Park Village, the last place I could get my resupply before entering the park and spending there approximately five days. I arrived at the village at 8am, and spent around 80$ on breakfast and food for the upcoming days. I also met Frogga from Australia, I saw him before when he was flip flopping north, trying to make up miles in the bad weather. He used to hike in USA, we spend almost an hour reminiscing adventures we had there.
Around 9:30am I decided to move on. Trail was going through the forrest on a gravel road then after couple of hours it opened up from one side to a picturesque countryside with a lot of green hills and meadows. Then after few miles it was walking through the farmland again and it remained like this until the end of the day.

At 4pm I arrived at the Couper's Crossing Farm where Roger and Sharon were hosting hikers for 20$ a night. It included a campsite, shower, wifi and hot drinks. Pretty good deal, especially considering that there was no other campsite within next 15 miles. When I was setting up the tent, Roger came over with a towel for the shower and showed me a young lemon tree growing nearby. He said that I could urinate on it if I wanted to, as apparently it made it grow faster. He learned that from the movie "World's Fastest Indian" with Anthony Hopkins. I've never seen the movie but it looks like I have to do it now.
There was about ten other hikers at the Couper's Crossing. Two Australians, an older gentleman from Sweden, four English hikers, an American couple and a two German guys, all ready to begin their canoe adventure tomorrow. I was the only person, who was walking the length of the Wanganui National Park. I managed to get two eggs from Sharon instead of tomorrow's breakfast since I was planning to leave early, I just had to boil them so they wouldn't crack inside the backpack. Campsite had many options for sleeping, for additional 20$ you could stay inside the semi opened shed where the kitchen and shower was, or in the "Into The Wild" style bus.
I estimated that if I manage to keep up the pace and hitchhike from Wanganui to Palmerston, I could spend Christmas in Wellington but we will see how this will turn up.

It's Friday, 15th of December 2023, I got 57 day to go.

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