• Te Araroa kilometres done: 1438
• Official kms: 31km
• Garmin kms: 32.67km
• Total time: 8:54
• Calories burned: 3660
• Body battery: 7/10 sore legs but slept well
• Accommodation: Danny’s house (cousin)
• Tent nights tally: 14

https://givealittle.co.nz/fundraiser/walking-te-araroa-3000km-for-the-key-to-life

So, after the 4 patches in my air mattress I think I may have another hole or 2! It was fairly flat this morning. I was awake at 5.30, packed away my sleeping gear & got changed. The group of 3 that turned up yesterday around 5pm were almost ready to leave. They told me their normal start time is 6am to get some walking done before the heat of the day, makes sense.

I was ready early, so while I was waiting for Nici I sat up on the platform messaging Antonia. She is back at home working from her office. The dogs are also with her. They sleep on the couch beside the desk. I miss our puppies.

We started walking just after 8:15am & had a 14km walk along the beach to start with. We were lucky with the weather as it was sunny but with a nice sea breeze.

After the beach walk we followed a 4wd track a few kilometres inland before jumping over a locked gate (yes that’s the trail) onto a gravel road, that whole time we were looking for shade to have some lunch, as soon as we had left the beach the temperature seemed to rise a lot! We finally found some pine trees to sit under.

I took my shoes & socks off while having a break, it was so hot that my feet needed airing. Lunch was wraps with Antonia’s left over salami & cheese with Aioli. That salami made it all the way from Taumarunui 2 weeks ago, pretty much unrefrigerated. Hope it agrees with me!

From lunch the last 16km was tar sealed road walking, not normal seal either, the real sticky stuff with the tar sticking to your feet! It was a 30 degree day & I was consuming a lot of water. About an hour after lunch I found what we call trail magic! There was a farm sprinkler sprinkling water onto the road. I went straight into it pack & all and let myself get soaked, it was so good!!!

Another hour went by & it was time to find some shade & have a break. Sitting there I finished all my water & so did Nici. We still had 6kms to go in this heat so we decided to door knock for water. As we walked up the first driveway a young man seen us & asked ‘are you after some water?’ I asked ‘how did you know?’. He responded with ‘we see you guys walking up the road everyday so assumed that was what you needed’.

He let us fill up our water, we thanked him for helping us out & we were back on the road.

I was in contact with my cousin Danny who is picking us up & let him know we will be in Bulls at around 5pm. About 2km out he pulled over to say hi & gave Nici & i a cold can of coke each before heading back up the road to our stopping point. The last 2km seemed to go pretty quickly & we were finished just after 5pm having done just under 33kms.

We got back to Danny & Wendy’s & they were so accommodating. Offered to wash our clothes, cold refreshing drinks & just relaxing. They live close to farmland & can get a few flys, they have this salt gun & it is so much fun using it.

Wendy cooked us a beautiful dinner of burgers & chips & we sat there having a few cold beverages until 10pm! Quite a late night for a TA walker but was a good night!