Thursday 13.04.2023

• Te Araroa kilometres done: 2848.5km
• Official kms: 8km
• Garmin kms: 8.29km
• Total time: 3:40
• Calories burned: 1940
• Body battery: 8/10
• Accommodation: Tent at campsite
• Tent nights tally: 19
• Zero days had so far: 32

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

Last night I had over 10 hours sleep! Although I woke a few times to hear mice scurrying around the hut.

No rush this morning as it’s only a 8km day, it does involve a 500+ metre climb & then a 600 metre descent though.

Coral left about 10 minutes before me just after 9:30am. I soon caught up within a couple of kilometres. It’s was fairly easy going for the first few kilometres & then the climb began.

Another overcast day with a bit of drizzle. It was a bit of a slog getting the climb done. It was only just over an hour and a half & I had reached the top of the climb. Apparently there is pretty good views from here. Unfortunately visibility was poor.

I stopped for a good 20 minutes up here as there was cell phone reception so I checked emails & text Antonia.

It started getting cold so I started moving again, Coral had also stopped for a bit but left about 10 minutes beforehand.

This exposed ridge reminded me of the Richmond’s. It was similar to some of the stuff I had done there.

It wasn’t long before I had descended down towards the campsite, just before dropping the clouds cleared & I got my first glimpse of the South coast!

As I arrived at the campsite I caught up to Coral. It was just before 1:30pm so we set up tents & had lunch etc. I spent the afternoon watching Netflix & trying to charge my phone but there was no sun so my solar charging wasn’t doing a very good job!

Looking forward to getting back into some form of civilisation tomorrow.