Friday 14.04.2023

• Te Araroa kilometres done: 2875.3
• Official kms: 27km
• Garmin kms: 29.32km
• Total time: 8:10
• Calories burned: 3871
• Body battery: 6/10
• Accommodation: Birchwood hut
• 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

Man there was a mouse problem last night. They kept trying to break into my tent! At about 9:30pm I pulled my pack into the main part of my tent to safe guard it from the mice.

Needless to say it was a fairly crappy sleep. I woke early packed my wet tent away, put on my wet hiking clothes & was off at 7:30am.

Today is basically all farm trail which Is undulating & about 30 kilometres. It started off with a theme that would continue most of the day….mud.

After the first kilometre I had to cross the main river which was flowing fast & was dirty from the last few days of rain. It wasn’t too bad here though.

On the other side the 4wd track carried on for a short while before suddenly turning right & climbing 200 metres over the next few kilometres.

About 10km in I had to Ford the now Wairaki river which had merged with the Telford further upstream, this time it seemed faster & deeper, almost reaching my hips at the deepest point. It was manageable though & I made it across fine.

The rest of today was either on farm track or going through paddocks with livestock & over stiles, there seemed to be a lot of stiles!

At 20 kilometres in I sat down for my first & only break, this was for lunch & I sat there for nearly an hour, as there was cellphone reception I organised my next few days of travelling & working out what I needed to do & where I needed to be.

Just over 8 hours & I had made it too the Birchwood private hut. The first thing I did was have a shower, then hang things out to dry.

I got to call Antonia & talk to her for a bit & then our shuttle that we had prearranged turned up to take us to the pub for food & beer.

There is 10 of us here tonight with at least 6 of us aiming for the 5 bed hut tomorrow. I should be there first considering I’m taking a detour to Riverton over the next 3 days.