Legs and Borders

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...

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 p...