• Te Araroa kilometres done: 868km
• Official kms: 15.4km
• Garmin kms: 16.35km
• Total time: 4.18
• Calories burned: 1861
• Body battery: 7/10
• Accommodation: Father in-laws Matamata
• Tent nights tally: 10

Today is the last day of 9 days without a day off! I will be so glad when I get to Waitomo! Looking forward to rest & recovery! I have definitely abused my body physically & mentally, but this also shows how resilient I am.

As I sit here drinking my coffee, I’m reflecting on what I have achieved so far. 40 days & I will have walked a minimum of 868km (detours etc can add extra kilometres).

As I was good to go I set off at 6.45am, Gokul was nearly ready, but as he is faster & generally shoots off ahead while we are walking I decided to start.

It was a fairly pleasant walk today, a few patches of clay where good footwork was needed. Even then I fell on my backside twice.

There was no rain which was a good change & with most of the track being well formed it made for an easy 16km out. This only took just over 4 hours.

I was in Waitomo just on 11am, I went straight to the Tomo bar & eatery to get lunch & noticed a sign saying ’please remove muddy boots’ so I took off my gators, shoes & socks, then proceeded to go inside but the front door was locked. After checking their opening & closing hours it showed they don’t open until 5pm! Oops, here I was in bare feet & decided to walk shoes in hand & pack on my back to The twelve tables eatery. They were open! Powerade & a Boil up pie was in order!

It wasn’t long before Antonia & Phil turned up! So excited to see them. We sat down & I had lunch number 2!

We headed off back to Hamilton to drop Gokul at the train station so he could get to Auckland for the next few days for a Christmas break, then the 3 of us went back to Phil’s place in Matamata where I am taking the next 2 days off the trail for a Christmas break!

It’s been an afternoon of washing clothes & gear, re-sorting gear & catching up.

I’m back on the trail Boxing Day afternoon to do the Waitomo to Te Kuiti track & have the luxury of slack packing it for 10 days from here as Antonia joins me with a car to pick me up & drop me off.

It will awesome to spend the next 3 weeks together. Anyway, that’s it for me today.