Paddle: 30km

Day 2 of Whanganui River Journey

Today we paddled about 30km but were still crap! Nevermind, we can run and cycle....

We set off last as Scott tried in vain to dry the tent (in the rain, bless him) after a wet night. The river looked very mystical in constant drizzle!

We stopped along the way to hike up to the Bridge to Nowhere (another "World famous in New Zealand"), a 1930's concrete bridge built over a gorge to allow access for farmers returning from WW1 but in the depression they all left the land, hence the bridge now leads nowhere. It was wet and concrete and we had to brave some stunning long drop toilets but we survived. Oh, and Scott spilt our tinned tuna lunch on my flip-flopped feet.

Back on the boat we found we weren't last today, Christoph was (he had fallen in tying up his boat we later found out) Great stuff. Encouraged by this news we paddled inefficiently on and reached our second campsite (Tieke something). There were less people this night as the Hashers were over the road in a lodge (with en-suite long drops - get them!) and we had a great night telling stories and star gazing. Again, sleep wasn't a problem.