After Te Araroa

We spend the next day (Saturday) just resting and sleeping a lot, and then we start to figure out the next steps.

In November, I tried to get a permit to hike the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in the US in 2024 but didn't succeed. There was another chance in January, and on that day, I got a better slot and the permit to start the hike on April 15 from Campo, at the US/Mexican border.

I have no idea if my feet can carry me. I'm sure that if they do, I will not make it the full way to the Canadian border because my foot problems limit the distance I can walk per day. I would have to walk more than they allow me. But I want to try to walk whatever is possible, and I hope I can do around 30 km a day. Maybe, maybe not.

I decide to return home to prepare there, and I will have a two-night stop along the way in Thailand to take care of some things there.

So, on Sunday, March 10, we walk to Invercargill airport and take a plane to Auckland. Through the window, I can see the areas we walked through: I see all the big lakes, like the ones next to Queenstown and Wanaka, I see Lake Hawea and Lake Coleridge, I see Arthur's Pass, Waiau Pass, Boyle, St. Arnaud and even the mountains I walked in the Richmonds, like Mt. Old Man and the Mount Rintouls. I am impressed by the length of the journey and the empty landscapes we walked through.

I can't fully grasp it yet.

In Auckland, we share accommodation one more night, and on Monday, I go to pick up my stuff that B. was holding for me. It was a big help to have someone I could mail things to and vice versa.

After that, we take the bus towards the airport again. X flies out tomorrow, and I fly tonight with destination Thailand.  
And after that back home.

I will start planning for the PCT when I am back home. I'll have to make some changes to my gear and need to organize flights and transportation as well as accommodation for the first three nights.

Things will be different there.

And there will be no X.

I'll blog.

There will be a section USA/PCT on this website.

That is the plan.

For now.

Trees along the wall to Invercargill airport:

On the way to fly out of Auckland, March 11. Good bye New Zealand.