Day 36: Heaphy Hut to Kohaihai Beach (with a side trip to Karamea)

When it starts to rain and you're hiking, there is only one reasonable thing to do:

 Hike in running shorts, sandles, and an umbrella, of course.

 A hiking selfie:  So far, I'm in good spirits.

 

 Another funny, at least to me, sign.

 One day, I need to find a way to put this sign onto a beer label.  Maybe a Scotch Ale, called the Wee Heaphy Ale.

  

 I think this is a possum skull.

 That black bird is a Stilt, we think. 

 Deer, perhaps?  A lot more creepy looking.

 This area of New Zealand is famous, for amoung other things, large carnivorous snails.  I kid you not.  Look up Powelliphanta snails.  The biggest snails in the world. And we saw one!

  It wasn't huge, but the shell was still 4 inches across.  Pretty big for an invertebrate.

 So Molly didn't really pay attention to the warning sign.

 But then again, neither did Sarah.

 Or me, for that matter.

  Just kidding.  We got past the washout, and then paused near this cute little waterfall.

 The last bridge before the end of the trail.  75 km in three days, not too shabby, eh?

 I hitched 18 km into Karamea, went to the grocery store, and bought some food.  Karamea is not much of a town:

 And so, trying to hitch back, I saw 4 cars in an hour.  None of which picked me up.  Granted, I looked exactly like those earlier pictures, so I don't really blame them.

 By the time I paid someone at a hostel to give me a ride back, Sarah and Molly had set up camp.   The fire was made purposely with wet wood to make it as smoky as possible.  It kept the flies away.

 

 The smoke of our fire, wafting through the trees.