Te Araroa (day 28) - Johnson's Campsite to Jerusalem/Hiruharama [Bridge to Nowhere] / mile 804

Jet boating from Bridge to Nowhere to Pipiriki commenced and it made me regret opting out of canoeing the river.

In the morning I walked the remaining ten miles to the Mangapurua Landing without any issues, stopping for a while by one of the landmarks of the Wanganui National Park called Bridge to Nowhere. It was a big concrete and steel structure government decided to build here with the idea of running the road into the Wanganui park. They wanted to do that because after WWI soldiers who returned to New Zealand were gifted plots of land here and many went into the wilderness to work it. Unfortunately the area was to remote and difficult to farm and access points were often buried by the landslides. Within 20 years most of the soldiers and their families abandoned their farms and moved back into civilisation. The bridge remained unused and disconnected, leading to nowhere. A statement to the failed human ambition, standing now forgotten in the middle of the forrest. I found it quite poetic, we should have more places like this to remind ourselves just how limited we are despite our endless ambitions.

From the bridge I walked remaining mile to the landing and waited here for the next four hours watching canoeing parties coming and going to visit the bridge. At 2pm the boat has finally arrived, we had a slight delay as one of the bikers who was going with us decided to have lunch, holding other five passengers for 20 minutes. When he finished, we started to make our way to Pipiriki. 

The views along the way were stunning, river was surrounded by an overgrown cliffs with many caves and connecting waterways shooting out of the walls. The whole area had a very unique and mysterious atmosphere. Every now and then we cut through the rapids that were often flipping canoes of the inexperienced paddlers. Seeing the river made me regret not taking the canoeing path of Te Araroa, and it might remain my biggest miss of the entire trip.

After 40 minutes we docked in Pipiriki. From here I walked another 6 miles, to a village called Jerusalem / Hiruharama where I was hoping to stay in an old convent by St Joseph's Church, unfortunately it was closed. I read later that it had to be booked beforehand by email. It was getting late, I kept on walking and not too far after the village I spotted a disused path going towards the river. I investigated the area, path ended at the wild beach, the one canoers would use to have a lunch break. It was a perfect spot to set up camp for tonight.

I cooked the dinner and washed myself in the river. Relentless sandflies kept on harassing my legs, so I quickly zipped the tent and didn't stick my nose out again. I could hear bees hard at work on the flowerbeds nearby and calming whistles of the mighty Wanganui river below.

Late at night I woke up to a strange sound outside, it was a wild duck snoozing by my tent. I thought about chasing it away, but eventually I let it and the raspy Donald Duck sounds it produced at peace.