Pt4 Day 15. Tieke-Kainga to Pipiriki (on river) & Pipiriki to Jerusalem (on road) - 21/11/16

Today's plan was to canoe to Pipiriki and then walk 12km to Jerusalem. As our canoes were being picked up at 1230, and it was only 21km on the river, we were in no rush to depart - getting underway about 0850. I recorded two separate GPS tracks for today, one for the river section and another for the road walk to Jerusalem. They can be found at:
https://www.movescount.com/moves/move131947501 (river)
https://www.movescount.com/moves/move131950449 (road)

The weather was a bit more sunny today and the river had dropped further from yesterday, although it was still above normal. This meant reasonable travel speed and some smoother water in some places, although the headwind did slow progress at times. There were some nice reflections of scenery on the river to be seen today - hopefully one or two of the photos can show it. We had a couple of slightly bigger rapids to negotiate today - one at Ngaporo and another right near the end at Pipiriki, although neither threatened to cause us harm in the end!! So all in all it was a good 3 hours or so on the river before pulling in at Pipiriki. We reorganised all our packs, had lunch - including a beer for me and Chevy since we couldn't have alcohol at Tieke Kainga - and psyched ourselves up for another road walk!

Leaving Tieke with Chevy and Franziska in the lead.

Looking back upstream. We had now shifted all the packs and barrels into the middle of the boat to keep everything drier.

Characteristic deep narrow gorge for waterways in the papa.

House and woolshed directly ahead!

Calmer water in some places today elicited some reflections for the first time.

The occasional taller waterfall.

Interesting formations in the papa.

And every now and then, a cave!!

And a papa ledge for a bit of variety!

Luckily they warn you that Pipiriki is 250m around the corner!

Landed at Pipiriki.

The crew at Pipiriki. Jason our canoe guy at left, then Murray, Ralph, Kevin, F, B, Chevy, Gill (in front) and Greg.

With the canoes picked up, we shouldered our heavy-feeling packs and tried to remember how to use our legs for walking! The scenery is still very impressive here with the dramatic papa cliffs on both sides of the river, although green farmland is starting to make an appearance as we get further down the river. Even in the first 12 km to Jerusalem we could see the massive damage the June 2015 floods did - there were lots of bits of roadworks going on to fix major and more minor slips on the road. It must be an incredibly expensive business!

Underway on the road again - looking back upriver.

An old, but operational, woolshed - more evidence of farming.

Plenty of beehives up here - there were many more to come as we walked down the river road.

Farmland on the other side of the river - not the easiest to access in places!

There was a lot of water flowing down the cliffs on our left, under the road and into the river.

At some stage we saw Kevin and Greg going past us on the river - we will see them in Jerusalem tonight

Asphalt road walking, but through pretty bush.

Gravel surface and evidence of the large amount of repair work going on.

Walking through roadworks.

Not very many straight bits of road on this section!

The road was a generally steady climb for the first 8-9 km, but only from around 50m to 170m so not to bad. Then the final run into Jerusalem was pretty much downhill. We arrived and headed up the hill to the nunnery and found a sister in the house who showed us the accommodation in the old convent house. The place is incredibly cute and peaceful. We went to look in the church but found lots of bees in the foyer! Upon opening the doors into the main church, it was evident there were even more bees everywhere inside! Both Franziska and I are allergic to bee stings so that visit was off the agenda unfortunately!

A lady near the driveway to the nunnery has set up a little shop in her house - very entrepreneurial - so Franziska and I walked down to get an ice cream and cold drink, and an ice block for Belinda! Good to see how the TA can bring a bit of money into these small communities. Kevin, Gill and Greg arrived and Gill had brought a "snack feast" with her, so after a shower we all settled around the kitchen table for cheese, hummus, crackers, dip, strawberries and chippies before dinner!!

Chatting around the table, we discovered that they were planning to stay tomorrow at the same place we had been thinking of trying to reach, about 34km away. Gill kindly offered to take some of our gear in the car tomorrow to lighten our loads a bit for the road walk. We quickly accepted the very kind offer as it would ease or long day - thanks Gill!!

Walking up the drive toward the church at Jerusalem (Hiruharama in maori).

The old convent, which is our home for the night.

Shoot inside the church - you can't see bees, but believe me when I say that there were lots of them!!

F & B resting at the front door.

Lounge area inside.

We chose this little section upstairs for our resting spot! So cute.

Pano of next door room still set out as if for children!

This is the famous (in NZ at least) catholic sister who was primarily responsible for the whole setup at Jerusalem.