Te Araroa Trail – Day 52 & 53

Monday & Tuesday, December 25-26,2023
Distance/ Total: 0 km / 0 mi

I’m taking two zero days in Whanganui for the Christmas Holidays. I spent Monday just resting around the campground and visiting with the people there.

There were a lot of travel trailers decked out with Christmas trees and lights for the holidays. It was strange to me to be celebrating Christmas in the warm weather.

I called family and wished everyone a Merry Christmas and received some pictures and videos of the grandkids opening their presents. I missed being there and celebrating in person.

I did celebrate with my very own package of Double coat Tim Tams (a popular chocolate cookie in New Zealand and Australia).

Monday was Boxing Day in New Zealand which is a big shopping holiday. The busses were running and I caught a bus into the center of town to buy my grocery resupply for the next section and grab some lunch. Unfortunately since it was a holiday many of the restaurants were closed until dinner time, so I tried my 1st Meat lovers pizza from Pizza Hut. It wasn’t what I expected. It had very little sauce, bland toppings, and drizzled with BBQ sauce. Oh well – I still ate the whole pizza.

Back at the holiday park I met up with some hikers I had met before the river and we enjoyed our hiker dinners together sharing our adventures down the river and plans going forward.

Although not the most exciting Christmas Holiday I’ve ever had, I did gets a lot of rest and I’m definitely ready to get moving down the trail again.