• Te Araroa kilometres done: 673.8km
• Official kms: 18.8km
• Garmin kms: 19.02km
• Total time: 5.26
• Calories burned: 2704
• Body battery: 9/10 body feels rested
• Accommodation: tent at trail angels
• Tent nights tally: 7

This morning we are being picked up by Mike at 9am, thanks Mike for going out of your way you are a legend! I was awake just after 6am, it’s raining, I guess this means I can test out my new dry sacks & pack cover for waterproofness.

Our start point is just south of Drury at what Gokul & I know as the 655k point, from here it’s a 18km slow climb & then descend to where our Trail angel is picking us up at 673k.

Mike turned up at 9am, not only to pick us up but he had new shirts!! So excited, hi vis, quick drying, breathable material. Appreciate the little things! We also went to the drop off point via picking up some coffee.

The 1st part of today was, you guessed it, road walking with a bit of rain thrown in for good measure. Around the 10km mark we found a park which had picnic tables so stopped there for lunch.

Not long after this we entered the farm track that would take us to the summit of Mt Williams. We were fortunate enough to have great views from up there as we were nearly 400 metres above sea level.

After a fairly steep descent we soon found ourselves in some beautiful bush track.

This took us through 2km of bush before exiting onto a road, where we walked for just over a kilometre & waited for our trail angel to pick us up.

The trail angel wasn’t too far off & drove us back to their place where we were offered hot showers, fresh towels & then dinner was bought out to us without us even requesting it. Adrian & Nadja are amazing hosts! We are so grateful to be staying here.

The rest of this evening is going to be spent pouring over maps & working out how we get to Huntley as most of the track is apparently underwater. Looks like I may be doing a bit of road walking!

Todays appreciation goes out to the legends Mike & Joanna King for their support, backing & encouragement & also to the amazing Trail angels Adrian & Nadja for going out of their way to make us comfortable.

Tomorrow should be interesting as we navigate south! Stay tuned.

Oh by the way, everything stayed dry in my pack!!!!