• Official kms: 43km
• Garmin kms: 43.5km more than a full marathon!!!!!
• Total time: 11.46
• Calories burnt: 5676
• Body battery: 8/10 great sleep last night!
• Accommodation: Picked up & taken back to Kere & Jodi’s from trail (sister’s place)
• Tent nights = still 3

The morning started with the alarm clock going off at 6am so we would be ready to leave by 7.30am. What a great sleep I had in the caravan! Mum came up at 7.30 ready to drive us back to yesterday’s end point & today’s start point which is a 30 minute drive.

Before leaving a plan was concocted. I suggested to the other 3 (Gokul, Jon & Caroline) what if we pushed through Puketi forest in 1 day? Since the forecast was for heavy rain today we will have to take the wet weather bypass which looks about 38km total? Surprisingly they agreed & off we went in the van to our start.

We set off at 8.15am. It proceeded to rain all day, heavy at times. After about 9km we stopped for a quick break, at this point I decided to check the map to see when we needed to turn off. It was at this point I realised that there was an additional 6km on top of our 38km needed to get out!!! I felt horrible telling the others, but they were pretty upbeat about. Gokul even said ‘awesome I get to do a full marathon’!

Gokul & I decided at that point that at every 4km mark we would sit & have no more than 10 minute breaks & for lunch break, no more than 15 minutes. It wasn’t long until lunchtime arrived & we sat & ate the corn fritters & asparagus roll that mum had made us the day before.

Not long after lunch the sky’s opened up & there was lightning ⚡️ thunder & heavy rain. A few of the following breaks were had in pouring rain!

I managed to contact my sister about 4km out using the Inreach to let her know we would be out in an hour at 8pm. Not long after this I passed my personal best of 41km in a day, then a km later we hit the full marathon mark.

It wasn’t long after this point that my brother in law Kere turned up, we still had over 1km to go from that point, so I asked him if he could wait there for us. We got to the car & the 43.5km mark within 15 minutes & Jon & Caroline were only 5 minutes behind. We were all grateful to be done & at just under 12 hours were ready for a hot shower, some food & a decent night sleep. Oh and also a zero day tomorrow to resupply & relax!