• Te Araroa kilometres done: 1075km
• Official kms: 28km
• Garmin kms: 28.46km
• Total time: 6:32
• Calories burned: 2894
• Body battery: 8/10
• Accommodation: last night in the Airbnb Taumarunui.
• Tent nights tally: 10

5am alarm this morning, we need to be at the Canoe place at 6.45am for the briefing & to load our supplies. We are also picking up Marko & Frank at 6.30am on the way through.

After the briefing I am aiming to get to where the road ends on the 42 traverse track, Antonia is picking me up from there. This should be around 28km & am hoping to start at around 8am.

Well, after the briefing finished we loaded the barrels with the food, payed & organised our plans, it was then close to 9am before I was able to start.

I said goodbye to Antonia & set off, firstly on a tar seal road & then it turned to gravel. About 5km in I had an ostrich following me up the fence line.

I continued walking at what I felt was a fairly good pace averaging around 5km an hour, at about the 12km point I had caught up to Simon, a school teacher from Auckland who was on his 3rd year section hiking the trail doing around 3 weeks each year. I had met him before on the timber trail a few days back. Not long after Nici caught up & I continued walking the rest of the day with her.

Antonia was meeting me for lunch again today & it was around the 19km point where we seen the car. Today was an ice block, chicken & chips as well as a cold coke. So good! It’s such a privilege to have her doing this to help me!

After lunch it was only 9.5km to our finish point. 4.5km to Owhango & then another 5km to get to k marker 1075, our end point. Nici walked with me & at the end Antonia was only 3 minutes behind us to pick us up, taking Nici 5kms back to her accommodation, where we will pick her up in the morning to join me doing the 42nd Traverse tomorrow. We will start back at 1075km point.

Tomorrow we are leaving here just before 7am & we will need to pack the car up as we are staying in Turangi tomorrow night. Nici & I are starting at 7.30am, Antonia will then drive back to Owhango & pick up Marko, who wants to do the Tongariro crossing tomorrow while the weather & visibility is good. He’s been really looking forward to the crossing for weeks so we definitely understand why he’s wanting to do it tomorrow.

Anyway not much else to report today. Sitting here, fed, showered & packed ready for tomorrow. I might even consider an early night!