Te Araroa, Day 33

I start walking at 6:25 am. Another long day of 37 km on paved ground is waiting for us. I haven't even walked 1 km when I see a woman in black clothes moving towards me. It's not her looks that capture me but the kindness I feel.
She is still quite far away, but somehow, I wish I could take a picture of her. When she is close, she stops, asking me, "Where are you off to?" "Hamilton," I answer, and I explain to her about walking the country.

Then I ask her the same question. She is going to take the bus to Hamilton. Her boyfriend is the driver. She is taking training there for a couple of months to help people with mental health issues. She says that this is currently a big problem in New Zealand and that they have a lot of drug-addicted people and high numbers of suicides. She says that she herself was drug addicted and now wants to help those who still are. I tell her that she will be very good since she had the experience herself.

I also want to know what she believes are the reasons for those issues. She answers, "the government."

(- "sneak peek": on Dec. 24 I ask a guy about those reasons after he mentions the same problems. I get a different and interesting answer. -)

After that conversation, there is a nice road of 16 km walk to a town called Ngaruawahia. Once we reach that town, we stop at a bench in a park by the river for a break. When some rain comes, we move into a pavilion to be protected.

While in the park, there are a lot of people just parking. We have seen that a lot. Everywhere on gravel roads, in nice places or common places, people just sitting in their cars. This is a strange phenomenon, but Google has some answers.

The last about 22 km, we walk on a bike lane along the Waikato River. At some point, a woman on a bicycle passes us. She had been distributing homemade sandwiches to TA walkers and offers us some. Seemingly, the last three walkers she met were all vegetarians, and she only has meat sandwiches left. X enjoys the sandwich while I appreciate her very nice gesture.

The walk along the river is nice, but the night before I only slept 4 hours, and I struggle a lot on the last 7 km. I even try to walk with closed eyes. X is far ahead, and I tell myself that I will stop at the next bench to rest. Well, at the next bench, I meet X. He is struggling too. At some point, we start walking again, and I ask X to keep on talking to me. It helps me to keep going. I am very relieved when we reach the place we stay in Hamilton.

Wanting to take a shower, I realize my warm Merino shirt and my Merino sleep shirt are missing. Besides that, I only have my hiking shirt. After a few seconds, I know what happened: in Ngaruawahia, we first sat on a bench. When I took out my down jacket, on top of it were those shirts. I put them behind my backpack. Then we had to leave quickly because of rain, and they must have fallen off the bench. Anyway, the shirts are gone.
Luckily, we are in a bigger town, and I will be able to find some replacements. I get a big pizza and a pizza bread of the same size and enjoy a good nights sleep.

Road to Ngaruawahia 

Letterbox 

Ngaruawahia 

Bike lane bridge on the way to Hamilton