Day 16
Started the day with crossing the footbridge between Ngunguru North and South. This bridge claims to be the longest footbridge in the Southern hemisphere. Originally built to allow kids on the South bank to attend the school on the North bank. After the crossing I continued on the low tide route. Then connected with the Whananki Coastal path, which was very nice indeed. Although I had started before the others, everyone caught me when I got to Sandy Bay beach. Marije was super keen to go for a swim, and I said I would also go if she did. She did, so I also went. It was more refreshing than I had expected.
The big activity for the day was to re-supply at Ngunguru. It had been 4 days without a descent mini-market, and it would be four more days before the next one. It wasn’t the biggest shop, but had all of the essentials. The last activity was to connect with James and arrange to be ferried across the water to his eco-lodge. And a very nice lodge it was. There were very affordable cabins ($40 per night) and plenty of space for tents ($30 per night). I took a tent site. James walked us through how we would cross the Horahora and Taihanuru rivers. Have to time to be at the first river 2 hours before low tide and at the second river no later than 2 hours after the low tide. The tide calculation meant we would lave at a very reasonable 9:30am.
