What a day! 😍 It began with a horrific weather forecast, and ended as one of the most incredible days on trail so far. Or off trail I should say, as I decided to take a slight detour.

Marie and I set out together at 6 am with a rainy roadwalk towards Tongariro National Park. It was foggy and wet, but we were excited for the adventure ahead.

Walking up the first part of the actual trail, we watched several day hikers turn around and walk back with disappointment on their faces. The visibility through the mist at this point was less than 20 meters and the rain continued relentlessly. But optimistic as always, we rather enjoyed the mystical atmosphere this gave our surroundings.

After ascending more than a 1000 meters, we reached the iconic Emerald Lakes and witnessed a miracle at the same time: the sun came out! Just a little and still veiled by clouds, but there were some unmistakeable rays of light, clearing our view of the lakes.

While Marie continued on the TA trail, I started my detour towards Waihohonu Hut. Immediately, I saw breathtaking views of desolate volcanic landscape; a walk into Mordor. Blue bits of sky started appearing and I got to use my sunglasses again for the first time in several days.

The trail descended into a valley, subtly changing along the way. Words fail to describe the beauty of it all, so I won't even try. After a few more hours of blissful hiking, I reached the mountain hut. It turned out to be quite a fancy one, with huge windows overlooking the park.

I had a refreshing cold dip in the stream next to the hut, read a book with a view and eventually fell asleep with a huge smile on my face.

I woke up to a view of the Red crater in full glory, slowly catching the first sun. A very promising start to a day that was indeed equally incredible as yesterday.

Stoked to walk on and fueled by a flat white in Whakapapa Village, I continued down the trail until I reached the most perfect private wild camping spot - right next to another cold river bath 🙃

Confusingly, there's a small town in New Zealand called National Park, which is where my short but wet hike led me to today. After arriving at the hostel, I pitched my tent in the garden and then spent the afternoon doing absolutely nothing at all. Glorious!

For the first time in nearly 2 months, I have the luxury of 2 rest days in a row! The first of those was filled with activities and errands: long morning coffees in the sun, hitchhiking to Gollums Pool, doing groceries for our upcoming canoe trip and, excitingly visiting the Carrot Capital of New Zealand: Ohakune 🥕😆

The second rest day was all about eating lots of chocolate, crisps and other comfort food, taking a very long hot shower and spending most of the day horizontally on the couch.

Just your average day of roadwalking, with a stretch of spectacular scenic trail in between. Slept on the floor of an old bus and had some delicious hot fresh bread at a trail angel's place.

Today's hike followed a rather spectacular gravel road. Dramatic cliffs, rolling hills, a meandering river and lots of sheep. I can't stop fantasizing about my barrel full of delicious food (and wine), which will be delivered to me tomorrow along with the canoes (we did these groceries before, stuffed them in boat barrels and left those with the canoe company). Looking forward to starting our Christmas river adventure! 

The morning starts foggy, but turns sunny at around 10. That needs to be celebrated with some Christmas breakfast champagne! 🍾 Also we're waiting for the canoes to arrive, and drinking out of boredom is obviously and always a good idea.

We have some more cold alcoholic beverages along the way, while easily gliding over the river through the beautiful bush gorge. There are small waterfalls everywhere, many beautiful bends, bird sound all around and we even spot the rare whio duck. Gentle rapids keep our attention on the water.

The river is flowing fast, so we barely need to do anything other than a bit of steering. Which is Marie's job today, since she's sitting at the back. I'm in the seat of enjoyment at the front; my main task is saying when it's time for the next beer. Now.

For dinner, we have fancy crackers and some other snacks - it's Christmas after all! But really, it's all about our traditional New Zealand dessert, one we've surprisingly managed to keep intact on the boat: Pavlova! YUM. We attack it with our forks and within 2 minutes all of it is gone.

In the morning, the campsite warden warns us to drink enough water, because it will be a sunny 27 degrees today - hurray! Another summery Christmas day ☀️

My turn this time to man the 'work seat', at the back of the canoe, and to make sure we don't crash / survive the rapids while Marie sits chilling in the front. We listen to music, soak up the sun, glide gently through the water and open our first beer at 10. Life is good.

At lunch we get out of the boat for a small walk to the Bridge of Nowhere, a concrete bridge with a backstory that doesn't become entirely clear on the information panel. How wonderful it is to walk on slippers and without backpack for a change!

Camping dinner consists of TWO courses this time, a starter of Thai pumpkin soup and a main of pesto gnocchi with sun-dried tomatoes, olives and brie. I'm actually feeling overstuffed afterwards but that's what Christmas is all about right? 

Another sunny day on the water! This time with slightly more challenging rapids, causing us to hit a tree, strand on the rocks, and bump over high waves. Great fun though, and getting a little wet was a welcome distraction from the scalding sun.

We have to battle a strong headwind in the afternoon, which forces me to work hard even though I'm in the chill seat at the front of the canoe.

Arriving in Jerusalem, we stay the night in an old convent, a very spacious building in an incredibly beautiful area. The dorms have plenty of comfy beds to choose from, some even featuring privacy curtains. There is a kitchen, showers and real coffee - all very welcome surprises!

With the fourth sunny day in a row the river level has dropped considerably and the rapids have gotten more serious, but we're pretty much pros by now so no worries. We managed to keep both the boat and ourselves (almost) dry this time; Marie and I have become a fantastic team.

Other than that, we've had a long lunch break at the first cafe we've seen in days, a lovely swim in the river, campstove Indian food for dinner and another very starry night 💕

More of paddling, sun, rapids, heat, beers on the boat and swims in the river. Basically just another fantastic day. ☀️

Got up at 4 am to finish the last stretch of river at the right tide. We witnessed a stunning sunrise over the water, paddled faster than ever and made it to Whanganui by 9, which left us plenty of time to relax for the rest of the day. Back to hiking tomorrow! 

Back to hiking with a big day of road- and beachwalking. The legs need a little time to get used to working again, but time we have: due to inconvenient tides we have a river to cross at nighttime. The convenient thing however is that this will help us a lot to stay awake until midnight and celebrate the arrival of 2023, a task that would've been nearly impossible to achieve otherwise.

We treat ourselves to a late start, a long coffee break in Whanganui and some stops in between. When we finally reach the beach, along which we'll walk until the river crossing, the sun is hanging low, casting a golden glow on the waves.

We arrive at the river crossing at dusk, two hours before low tide. It is getting cold and dark fast, we are up to our knees in the mud and the water is still too high to cross. Shit. We decide to follow the river to where it flows into the sea and try our luck again. This time with more success. Our bums are wet, but our bags dry when we make it to the other side.

A short struggle through sand and mud later and completely exhausted, we pitch our tents in the dark. The $2 hot shower I have after that goes straight to the top 5 best moments of 2022.

When the clock hits 12 we quickly exchange hugs, take a celebratory sip of wine (which mixes badly with our freshly brushed teeth) and are back in bed 5 minutes later. Looking forward to a 1st of January without a hangover 🙌

As it turns out, sitting on my ass in a canoe for 6 days dramatically reduced the stamina I've built as a thru hiker. My body is aching, my muscles are sore, my legs tremble. Seems like two big days in a row was a bit too jolly after the river break.

We did have a lovely new year's dive at the end of 15 kms of beach, followed by a long and arduous roadwalk to Bulls. Once there, we enjoyed some screw-top champagne in the holiday park hot pool, a great ending of the first day of the year.