• Te Araroa kms done: 496.5
• Official kms: 24km
• Garmin kms: 25.25km
• Total time: 10.23
• Calories burned: 5310
• Body battery: 9/10 seeing my wife was a big pick me up!
• Accommodation: Marks house.
• Tent nights: still 6

Today I got to wake up next to my wife, it was so nice seeing her. She is leaving for work at 6am this morning.

The rain started last night & got heavy at times. Jon & Caroline are going to do a zero as they have injuries & with the rain & muddy track it’s not worth risking aggravating it.

Gokul & I are still going to try & get through the Dome today. Hamish is picking us up at 7am & dropping us back to Pakiri School where we pick up the track again.

We met Kevin walking at the start, but soon lost him until the end of the day. The 1st part of the track was a 300+ metre climb & was exhausting as I’m still not a hill person! Then as it flattened off it turned into mud which at times was technical. We stopped for a 15 minute break at the weather station about 2 & a half hours in. The good thing is it only took us 3 hours & 45 minutes to get to Matakana valley road.

From here it was about 3km of walking to get to the Dome track. Not long before this there is a lovely trail angel at 202 Govan Wilson road that offers free drinking water from his outside tap! So was able to fill up here for lunch & the rest of the journey.

About half way through the dome track we bumped into Luke, Sam & Frank, boiling water for a coffee break.

The track was slow going at times but had a variation of good track, road & mud. Just towards the last 1.5 kilometres my brother walked in to meet us & walk the last part to the car park.

He also offered Kevin & Ian a bed for the night. We got home, showered & a surprise was out in the living room. My uncle & aunt had come to visit.

After everyone had showered we ordered pizza for delivery, ate & then it was time for bed. 27km day tomorrow, hope the body holds up.