Te Araroa Day 47, Bulls to Palmerston North

Starting km: 1465
Finishing km: 1509
km covered today: 44

What does one do after a great big day of road walking?
Another big day of road walking!  At least this one was pretty flat too.

I left Bulls pretty early because my final destination, Palmerston North, had some exciting stuff in store.  (There are probably Kiwis who think I'm making a little joke here, but no, I'm serious.)

Shortly on I passed the Mount Lees Reserve, where I'd hoped to spend the previous night but didn't quite make it.  And it really was a lovely spot, with a nice little B&B, some lovely looking camping spots, a few short walking tracks and a caretaker(/B&B host) who was a bit disappointed at the lack of TA walkers who'd stayed there thusfar this year and encouraged me to encourage others to do so.

A bit further on I passed Feilding, a multiple of the NZ's most beautiful town award.  It was only my second time there.  Both times I've observed that it's pleasant enough, but both times I've also been a bit bemused at its having won the title more than once.

While in Feilding I ran into Yvonne (of Whanganui River Journey).  Apparently I'd just missed Leigh as well when she went into the centre of Feilding to do some shopping, and had missed both of them the previous night when we all stayed in the Bulls Holiday Park, but I was too exhausted to look around much when I arrived after dark, and to wake up early enough to notice them before they departed.

I walked with Yvonne most of the way into Palmy, including a section through Bunnythorpe (of Bunnythorpe Substation fame... I'd often read about work being done on transmission lines with one end at Bunnythorpe, but hadn't even really known where it was until I discovered I'd be walking through it).  Most of this section was on road, but Te Araroa has this habit of taking little detours through crappy, overgrown and inconvenient bits of non-road trail simply to get you off the road for a few minutes.  I guess it's a nice thought, but this one was very difficult to follow and managed to get us lost, thoroughly scratched by blackberry brambles and turned what would have been a 10 minute road walk into a 25 minute grumbling session.

Anyhow, on to the excitement of arriving in Palmy:
Part 1 was in the centre of town.  I split off from Yvonne and went in to check out Brew Union, a relatively new brewpub and restaurant.  I was absolutely delighted to have a late lunch there, putting my feet up and enjoying a pretty decadent cheeseburger as well as a pickle-juice gose, and three house-made beers (XPA, bitter and stout.)ona

Part 2 was my accommodation for the evening, a few km south of the town centre.  The Whiowhio hut is a replica backcountry hut in the suburban back garden of Anthony and Fiona, two previous TA walkers who also do a lot of predator trapping in the nearby Ruahine ranges to help the survival of the Whio, or Blue Duck, a native NZ bird that lives in fast flowing streams and dislikes flying even more than most ducks.
To my pleasure I discovered that there were four other guests, including Yvonne and Leigh (I actually got picked up on the street and taken to the supermarket to resupply by Leigh and Anthony just as I was nearing the place.)
It was a Saturday night, so we had a wonderful sociable sorta pot-luck-y dinner and several beers and wines before retiring to the absolutely awesome hut for bed.

Fiona and Anthony were absolutely fabulous hosts, and as I said to them, I loved absolutely everything about their hut.  From the design and construction (Fiona used to be a cabinet maker), to the authentic DOC-style signage (Anthony is a graphic designer), to the 100% authentic DOC hut book (gifted to them on the hut's opening.  I love filling in hut books.), to the standard orange trail markers on light standards on their street leading to it and back out to the main TA route.
It was a great place to stay and they were great hosts!