• Te Araroa kilometres done: 939.5
• Official kms: 25.5km
• Garmin kms: 25.59km
• Total time: 6:05
• Calories burned: 2277
• Body battery: 8/10
• Accommodation: Lesley’s (Antonia’s cousin) lodge in Mangakino.
• Tent nights tally: 10

Up & at ‘‘em this morning as we need to clear out the motel room & I’m wanting to start around 8.30am to get these 26km done & dusted to reach the start of the Timber trail.

We were on schedule & left the motel right on 7.30am & after just under an hour of driving was at my start point. After saying goodbye to Antonia (until lunchtime) i was off at 8.30am walking the next 14km of gravel road.

About 6km in I startled a sheep that was on the road, it then decided to walk ahead of me for the next 500 metres before veering off the road.

Not long after this I got my 1st glimpse of Mt Ruapehu in the distance.

Just before midday Antonia was parked up on the side of the road with sandwiches, sushi’s & a cold bottle of coke! Absolute luxury!

At this point the rest of the afternoon consisted of walking alongside SH30 before turning off to do the last 3km of gravel to the Pureora campsite area, where Antonia was waiting & where I will be starting tomorrow cycling the timber trail over the next two days. We caught up with Ayumi & Nichola quickly before driving to Mangakino to stay with Lesley & Dean at their Lodge.

After unpacking & cleaning up Lesley made us an entree of cheerios yum!

Dean & Lesley cooked an awesome dinner of steak & salad & we sat around relaxing for the evening & also having some powerful conversations on mental health! It’s great to be able to openly discuss this.

Such amazing hosts & was really awesome to stay in their lodge. What a cool spot!