Day 49 | Riverton
1 December 2022 | 14°C | 32km
It feels a bit odd to walk back towards the airport, the place we arrived at two days ago, but that’s were the trail goes.
We pass it by and after another 5 km reach Oreti beach. The sun comes out. It’s like a deja vue: ninety mile beach, 2nd edition. This time 22km. More wind but still a nice walk, we play around with different objects we find on the beach and admire old cars “buried” in the sand.
After a lunch break in the dunes, the wind picks up and while it’s coming from the side first, it later turns into a head wind. Walking becomes hard work now. We wonder if there’s a road parallel to the beach behind the dunes but can’t see anything on the map. Once we see a pine forest behind the dunes we head over and it’s a relief to walk between the trees out of the noisy wind.
The last kilometers still drag on forever but we make it to the supermarket just before it closes at 8pm. Surprisingly, the holiday park is fully booked with a school class. Bummer!
Riverton will become “the town of strange people” for us: The ladies in the supermarket do not know if there’s a pub in town (we find one a bit further down the road). The lady from the fish and chips shop does not know if there’s any accommodation in town (the lodge is just a 5 minute walk away). The grumpy owner of the lodge says he has no rooms but lets us camp in the backyard with access to a hot shower (next morning he tells us we should have asked for bunks instead of rooms 🤪).