Te Araroa (day 29) - Jerusalem/Hiruharama to State Highway 4 / mile 846

I've spent most of this hot, sunny day walking with Camille from France.

In the morning I hiked the first 6 miles quickly in hopes that a coffee shop at Matahiwi will be open. Unfortunately it was closed every Monday and Tuesday, so I just sat outside and had my breakfast. Soon after Tim from New Zealand walked pass with his bicycle, he was surprised I was here so early and asked where I came from. I noticed that his back tyre was flat and I pointed it out. He couldn't believe that it happened to him on the last day (he was cycling TA in sections). I suggested that if it's a slow leak he could be able to pump the tyre and it might stay good for long enough to get to Wanganui. It worked just fine and I saw him cycling past me half an hour later.

After two hours when I was having another short break, one of the hikers who stayed at Matahiwi caught up with me. Her name was Camille, she was from Lyon in France. We spend rest of the day hiking together. She was quite a traveller, she hitchhiked through the Canada last year, stayed for couple of months in Nepal, hiking Annapurna Circuit. She would go to other countries and live on a budget or work few hours per day in a hostel to get her accomodation and food for free. In between her travels she would go back to France and take temporary jobs in restaurants, hotels and cheese factories to save up for her next adventure.

We spend a long time taking about our travelling experiences and what our next big adventures might be. It was good to have someone to talk to after last couple of days spent mostly in silence.The water accessibility wasn't great on this section and it was a sunny, hot day. I ended up knocking at someone's door asking for water, later on we managed to find a stream.

There wasn't much accomodation on our way too, we thought about camping at the viewpoint by the side of the road but it was windy and rocky there so we decided to push further. Camille found some trail angels number on Facebook but when I called it, the guy said that it was too late for him to arrange anything. In the end we arrived on the main road leading to Wanganui, it was getting late and we were still 14 kilometres away.

Here I decided to knock at someone's door again, we got answered by Gwen, I only wanted to ask her if we could camp on the other side of the road where her house was but she invited us to stay on her land. She was living here on her own with her little sanctuary of injured and abandoned animals. Two senior dogs, a bunch of sheep, a week old calf whose mother died and an injured eve. She said that we can use her toilet and take water from the tap. She had a huge lemon tree with plenty of juicy fruits hanging from it, there was also a lemonade tree, with fruits looking like a cross between a lemon and orange and tasting like a mild grapefruit. We could also eat those and they were quite delicious.

We set up our tents among the sheep and cooked the dinner. Camille added me to the 'TA October starters' group on whatsapp which could come in handy on the South Island. We both agreed that it was an interesting, adventurous day and went to sleep.