Day 3, Auckland-pukenui

I left Auckland early this morning to catch the bus to kaitaia by Kerikeri. I arrived a couple minutes after boarding began and by the time that I boarded there were no rows left empty. The man next to me had his bags on the seat, but the woman in front of him had a seat free. This is how I met Manja.

 She's German from Dresden, and she was also hiking TA. We began talking on the bus and we decided to make our two solo walks together for the time being. After a stop and Kerikeri we boarded the bus for kaitaia where I began talking with Ruben, a local who let me know several of the wild edibles in the region and were the est peach trees on the track would be. He got off before Kaitaia, and this is how  we met Nick and Mel. 

They are couple doing parts of TA together, so we begin to chat with them about gear and routes until the bus stopped in kaitaia. We walked together to the end of town where we split up our pairs to try to hitch to Reinga that night. Manja and I made it as far as pukenui when we were hitching and a nice woman asked us if we like a bit of work and a place to stay for the night. We quickly agreed and set to work separating and bagging mussels for a few hours. After work we sat and got some beer from and with our new friends and set up our tents in the back yard. Manja and I cooked a stew inside and got some great brandy an wine from our hosts!

 We went to bed that night tired, but ready for Reinga in the morning!