Te Araroa (day 8) - Paihaia to Helena Bay / mile 186

"Those damn gypsies selling drugs on the side of the road, but at least we know where they are" Mike (or Tim)

"The ones that don't do what they are told, that's the good guys" Dave

Long, productive day on the road, Kerouac would be proud. I started walking from Paihaia just after sunrise, got 6$ latte at mobile "Coffee 2 Go" parked on the side of the road, it was delicious. Then I've walked all the way up to Opua which took me about an hour and caught 2$ ferry to Okiato. The driver was quite talkative and explained to me few queries I had about the trail ahead.

After ferry crossing which took 15 minutes, I kept on walking until I reached the intersection. Here I decided to hitch quite dangerous, windy section of it, managed to get a quick hitchhike with Mike and his dog Tim (or Tim and his dog Mike, I got it completely mixed up). He was a local farmer who apparently picked up hundreds of TA hikers along this road in the past, his dog kept on jumping on me and relocating himself all around the car which was quite funny. Tim (or Mike) told me that he was sailing tomorrow to Cape Reinga to catch some fish for Christmas. After ten minutes the ride was over and he dropped me of at the TA intersection.

Next twenty miles were a mixture of gravel and asphalt roads, I've met few other hikers along the way. First of them was Olivia from Australia who was going northbound (the opposite way to me) and was just wrapping up her entire Te Araroa hike. She completed south island last year and gave me a lot of useful tips for the trail ahead, like: how the hut pass worked, where were the areas we could camp other than official ones and what was the weather and water situation on the south island. She recommended me to get a 'NZ Topo 50' app as it had all the features she found useful along the way.

Shortly after I've met Christof from Germany,  he was visiting New Zealand for ten months and was planning to mix up exploring the island with work. He was also a Nobo, section hiking Te Araroa from Auckland to Cape Reinga.

Lastly I met Elena from Norway who was, like me on a three months visa and going the same direction, but only planning to hike the north island. She was quite disillusioned with the whole Te Araroa experience so far. She didn't like the long stretches of road walking and found the lack of campsites along the way irritating. She was visibly struggling with blisters and tendons as we walked which might have affected her judgment.

There was a sign hanged by the trail about trail angels Alex and Dave hosting people in Helena Bay, which was approximately the distance I was still happy to cover, I've texted both of them and Dave replied that it shouldn't be a problem. He picked me up from the beach and took me to their home. Alex, his partner had her 50th birthday yesterday, few of their friends stayed around, they were planning to go fishing tomorrow morning. Dave and Alex were living off grid in a simple, wooden house, using rainwater for drinking, cooking and bathing, they had their own power generator and gas bottles to heat up the water. 

We sat outside debating the situation in Ukraine, Russia and America. We talked about all kinds of fish and chips I'm yet to try and just how many different species of birds there were in New Zealand. Alex was a painter, she has portrayed many of the local wildlife on her canvas hanging around the house. There was a family of kingfishers living in their garden, I could see them flying back and forth hunting for food. Imagine seeing such a sight in Europe! But in here they were completely ordinary.

Dave, Alex and their friends were so tired after the party last night, that they went to bed before me, I had a shower, tended to my bruised feet, cooked and ate some pasta with tuna thickened by dry potato flakes and joined them in the land of zzz soon after.