Pre Hike Activities

On Monday, Oct. 30, I am busy working through a list of to do's. There is still a lot to do before the start of my hike.

On Tuesday, Oct 31, I go to the airport again. This time I have a flight with a small Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, from Auckland to Kaitaia in the north.

The plane has room for 12 passengers. There are only three of us. The sky is cloudy and I am nervous. It's like sitting in a flying soapbox. It's so noisy in the plane that you couldn't have a conversation. It also makes me nervous that the co-pilot keeps falling asleep.

However, I still enjoy the flight a lot. It's a very different feeling than in a big long-haul plane.

One of the other two passengers must have been even more nervous than me. Unfortunately, she couldn't keep her food down.

There were no paper bags provided, leaving the co-pilot with a considerable clean-up task after landing.

Arriving in Kaitaia, I buy gas and food for the next few days on the trail. I am supposed to start at 5 am the next day. A driver is to take me to the starting point.

But then everything turns out differently. First, the driver writes me that he can't pick me up on 1 November. He is unavailable right now as a result of the damages from the storms that have just been here. Secondly, I get a sore throat and a thick head.
I suspect the symptoms are due to the fact that I sat on a bus with a defective door for 1.5 hours on Sunday. Cold air made for a relentless draught. Plus my system is exhausted from the weeks of preparations and work before.

In the end I move my start date from Nov. 1 to Nov. 3, drink lots of hot lemon with ginger and honey and rest to be able to start on Nov. 3.