The weather caught up,
During the night, the rain set in, and this morning looked windy, cold, wet and grey outside. Initially I got everything ready to go, hoping for a short break in the rain, but by 10am I knew I was making Taipo Hut my home for another night. I added these pictures from the day before.
It is only about 10km to Greenstone Hut, but I has staying nice and warm here where I am. Soon southbound walkers from Greenstone came drenched in by the door. Wet to the bone, most of them decided to push on, while a select few decided to join me in the cosy Taipo Hut for the day, and night.
Before starting my trip, I thought there will be lots of time to meet people, during the day and sharing accommodation in the evening, but it is not quite true. Perhaps it is me, wait… it is probably me, wait… I can hear Lucille shouting “it IS you”, but for the most part it feels like ships passing in the night. During the day, it is mostly just a “Hi”, sometimes followed by a wave and occasionally a quick chat about the route ahead, conditions of the track, level of a river crossing and how long ago did you start from where. In the evening while sharing accommodation, there seems to be always something to do next, laundry, swimming, dinner or getting ready for bed. Only on some occasions when a conversation does start, it struggles to make it past a point that you actually introduce yourself or asks the other persons name.
I do however, on rare occasions strike a person that I just feel connected to. Tough to explain it, but in 2 or 3 instances now, I actually felt regret having to leave in the morning and know that I will probably never see that person again. Sometimes the conversation just flows nicely, we might have similar circumstances or reasons behind doing the TA or like a couple days ago, sitting outside next to a person while watching the sunset, not saying a single word for what felt like hours.
One of the people that did decide to stay at Taipo today is one of them. Thank you Poppy for making my day in Taipo Hut much less grey, and much more memorable. Good luck with your journey south, all of the best.
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45.0504 – 168.2222
24 February 2024
FP-44