Whanganui to Palmerston North

Whanganui is a compact and bustling town.  We spent a night in a lovely hostel and stocked up on supplies before heading off the following afternoon.   The walk to Palmerston North (Palmy) was mostly along roads so not one of the highlights but we met some very nice people along the way. 

Shirley & Allan

On our first night we walked up to a house to ask permission to camp on private land.  As we approached the house a lady was stood in her driveway and she explained that she had seen us walking on when she drove home from work and almost been expecting us.  She put us up in her cabin and we spent a lovely evening with Shirley and Allan.

The next morning it poured with rain and as we walked along State Highway 3 each passing lorry jet washed us with spray.   We continued along quieter roads, the rain continued to hammer it down, the wind blew and I was freezing.  I walked passed a letter box where two young girls about 10 years old had popped out to check for letters.  They asked me what I was doing then ran back inside their house they reemerged having gained the permission of mum to invite us in.  We dried out and warmed up with the help of tea and cake.  The girls were hilarious asking us all sorts of questions that no one else had. 

The rain stopped and we headed on to Turakina Beach.

 We walked on to the town of Bulls where everything has a Bull name.  There is the Bank-a-bull, the reliev-a-bulls etc. 

The Bulls of Bulls

We had a rest day in Palmy but as it was a Sunday we were unable to print the maps we needed for the next section.  So on the day of our departure we followed our route which skirted to river walk around the city before heading back into the city to print our maps.  It was a rare, lovely, sunny day and we were both lacking motivation.  When we looked at the maps we realised that we had made an error in our planning and that we needed more food than we had.  By the time we had sorted things out it was after 5pm and we decided so stay another night in Palmy.  The following day we were all packed up and ready to leave when I checked my phone to find a message from Helen (a friend from the UK) saying that she was on her way to Palmy and would be arriving at 5pm. 

We decided to amend our walk and instead of walking on as planned we got a lift to where we had expected to end that night and walked back into Palmy to meet David and Helen.