Te Araroa Trail Anakiwa to Havelock
I was up and out on the trail by 7.30am this morning. I only had a few kilometres to walk of the Queen Charlotte track today from the Davies Bay DoC campsite, so I reached Anakiwa pretty early. You can’t imagine how much I was looking forward to a coffee from the coffee cart numerous people had raved about. Whane I passed it I discovered it opened at 1.30pm…Ouch!! sooooo disappointing!
From Anakiwa it was a lengthy roadside walk of 18kms to Havelock. At least there was a nice path for us to follow. Part way along I met Brenna (USA) who’d been at the Te Araroa trail Christmas bash in Wellington.
We braved the surly service and ordered a hot drink at the Linkwater garage, and carried on together until the state of the road walk got so dangerous that we had to hitch… (a very very winding road with blind corners & no road shoulders/verge). We were picked up within a few minutes by Pete and Ginny from Golden Bay who drove us to Havelock.
We found out later that we missed one turn which would have taken us off the road and onto a beautiful trail into Havelock for the last part that we hitched, so keep your eyes peeled!!
Into Havelock
We checked into the Havelock Holiday Park and went for a delicious pie (steak & cheese) and a smoothie. We assessed our food situation. We’ve got up to 10 days coming up in Pelorous > Richmond ranges > St Arnaud, without any option of resupply (unless we hitch out to Nelson). We decided against the hitch and went with carrying 10 days worth of food instead. I’d already organised/sent a resupply box to Pelorous Bridge DOC campground – tomorrow’s destination, so I just needed a few little bits and pieces. The little Four Square supermarket in havelock was pretty decent.
After sorting the food we went for a cheeky beer and some fries in the Slip Inn, on Havelock marina. We whiled away the rest of the afternoon talking with our lovely neighbours in the holiday park.
** Post trail note: On reflection it’s pretty easy to walk down to Nelson from Rocks hut via the Dun mountain trail OR to walk out from Hackett hut down the Hackett track into Richmond. Either of these options is preferable to carrying 10 days worth of food!!