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6.21 6.22 coastal track cont.

Today i got an earlier start because i had to do a water crossing and didn't want to be russed getting there. I had another 11.5 km to walk about 4.5 hours but for me of course a bit longer. I had to walk a huge long stretching gorgous beach before the low tide crossing in Onetahuti Bay. I rolled my pants up as far as i could but being short i still got drenched. It was funny when i got close to the Awaroa hut because of the high and low tides, there was boats anchored and docked a good 100 meters from any water, just sitting on dry land it was quite amusing. Of course later they would be floating in a few feet of water. i was the only one at the hut and had no matches to start a fire to keep warm, so i was curled up reading a book in my sleeping bag. I was in need of a shower pretty bad so i washed up at the outside sink which of course there's no such thing as warm heated water. It's in the 40's right now and the water is outdoors so you can just imagine how freazing it was! i even dunked my head in and shampooed! finally around 4 two cute german boys about my age showed up. They got a fire going and we talked most of the night. we had no candles so it was pitch black in the hut aroudn 520pm and we laid out in the kitchen again to sleep warm and talked till 730 and went to bed that early!

The next day i was just supposed to catch a water taxi back to the start and get a bus back to the city to catch a plane home to Wellington. To my luck, there was a huge storm that night and heavy winds, the high tide plus the rain filled up the entire dried up are very high. At about 11am a small boat came over and asked for Naomi, and said that no boats could go out and no water taxis. So they dropped me off across the water and told me to continue the track another 1.5 up to a car park where a van would meet me to take me to my bus. I started hiking and came to a bridge where a couple was sitting. I figured they were just resting till i saw that the "path" was a huge ocean waves crashing into the side of a mountain with huge rocks. They said they were also stuck and hoping the high tide would go down. I begin talking to them and find out they are also from the states, louisiana, and realize they are the other people the guys were looking for who were taking a water taxi. I tell them whats happening and that they are supposed to be taking a van with me as well. We wait for an hour and the water doesn't change a bit.

I tell them i saw a sign for a side trail that leads to a road, it wasn't apart of the coastal track, but can give us a possibility of reaching help. There was no way we would meet the van on time, but just needed to get out of the forest! keep in mind that this entire track is in the middle of no where with no phone reception or real towns and neighborhoods. i have to walk the whole hour i just did back, and we take the trail i saw. It was our only hope. we begin walking and hit a couple streams, shine high deep and i take my shoes off to cross. Adventually we keep hittin more and i decide to leave my shoes on even though they are my last pair of dry shoes and my last dry outfit. it was a good thing i just left them on because we ended up crossing 19 streams! The winds from the storm blew trees down and all kinds of mess on the track. We hit one spot with a huge tree laying in our way. i being the smallest, climbed through looking for the other side of the path. We continued and came to a drop off that i had to take my 30 pound bag off and throw over and then balance on a log and jump! we were all ready to just break down. It was hard to keep yourself together when your so cold, wet and hope for finding help. If i didnt find help i'd miss two bus rides and a plane ride and be out of a lot of money! Mostly i was worried with no dry clothes, hardly any food or water, my saftey alone. after another 2 hours of hiking we came to the road! it was a gravel road with no traffic. we would have to just start hiking to the nearest payphone and find help or a passing car. we walked about 20 mins, and it started pouring so get us even more wet. the road was all up hill as well! Then we came to a sign saying the next civilization was another 4 km. we continued walking and finally a car came! after talking to them they were going to give me a ride to a phone so i could call, and all of a sudden the van that was supposed to pick me up, had given up after almost 2 hours of waiting for me and was headed back! So we got in the van and missed the bus but he drove us a few hours to had back to the nearest town. He dropped me off at the airport, and i was a good 2.5 hours early for a domestic flight, soaked and all! haha i was just glad to be safe, and headed home! we got really lucky and it gave us a good scare. Just a few months ago an israeli women was hiking alone and they found her dead body weeks later! I was just very thankful. i got back to wellington about 9pm and caught a shuttle home.