We spent all of today’s hike on one single road. We started on the road and did not turn off it until we hit our destination at the very end of the road. It was 25km and 5 long and hot hours. We started out pretty early and had reached Whakahoro and the DOC hut by 12:30 so it was nice to have the afternoon off but it was again so hot in the afternoon that we would not have wanted to be hiking in it. The hike was a fairly gentle downhill slope most of the way which made it easier and we had pretty good views of the valley the whole time but gravel road is so unbelievably boring. We’re also finding that by the time we finish on the road we’re both exhausted and limping into camp with hundreds of new injuries that we’ve discovered while not needing to think about the hiking. Good thing we start the canoe tomorrow! Whakahoro is basically a few cabins and lodges where a bunch of hiking and biking trails meet together and meet the river. As such tourist groups often come in for a day or two to “be in the wild”. Luckily for us, that means they have a cafe that we could hang out at all afternoon while the tourists were out and about. The DOC hut is also pretty nice for a hut and there’s two other couples of canoers staying here tonight as well. We’ll all be paddling to the same destinations for the next few nights so it’s nice to meet them now and have some company.