Monday 23.01.2023

• Te Araroa kilometres done: 1551km
• Official kms: 22km
• Garmin kms: 23.10km
• Total time: 8:17
• Calories burned: 3646
• Body battery: 8/10
• Accommodation: Motel in Palmerston North with Antonia.
• Tent nights tally: 14
• Zero days had so far: 11

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

Track me live here:

https://aus-share.explore.garmin.com/curtiss

I woke up to rain at around 3am this morning it also prompted me to pee & blow up my airmat. Surprisingly I had a really good sleep. My alarm went off at 6:30am & I pushed snooze. But managed to get up a few minutes later.

Nici & I were ready to go by 8am & started off down the forestry road before it turned into a gravel road. About 2.5km in we reached the no3 reservoir dam. It was another 1km before reaching the start of the bush track.

What an amazing track, a bit of mud but really good gradient & nice walking. Nici & I took our time walking this.

Just before the lookout I managed to somehow rip the top off my right shoe! We still had 13km to go, this happened about 1km before the Horowhenua lookout so I raced to there as I knew there was reception.

Once I got there I turned my phone off flight mode and I had 4G reception. So I googled shoe shops in Palmerston North. I found a shoe shop called Kelly’s shoes and gave them a call to see what they had. They didn’t have my brand but had some ASICS that seemed ok so I asked if they could put them aside & I would get someone to collect them before they closed at 4pm. (Public holiday)

I managed to get a hold of Antonia & since she is in Palmy is going to pick them up before picking us up later this afternoon. yay!!!

After leaving this lookout (sorry forgot to take photos but had amazing views) it was only another kilometre to Archey’s lookout , where I remembered to take photos. You could see all the way to the coast from both lookouts.

It seemed like a fairly quick descent from here, dropping about 300 metres in elevation. Once on the valley floor it was a very nice walk zigzagging the creek.

The last 5km was on gravel & then tar seal road, once we got to the Poads Road intersection we sat & waited until Antonia to turn up. It was so good to see her even though it was only about ten days ago that she left.

Once we got into Palmerston North we showered & went out to Burgerfuel for some dinner. Nici & I also had to repack our bags ready for the next 5 days.

I’m assuming there will be no reception for the next 5 days so won’t be able to post blogs until we get out at Waikanae.

Stay tuned……