• Te Araroa Day 7 & 8
• Kaitaia Rest Days
• Cups of tea consumed: many

The bed here is so comfy, I had a great sleep. Mentally it was nice to wake up and know that today there was nowhere to get to, no packing up to do, and I could just relax. At the same time, it was kind of weird as well!

I noticed there were some scales in the bathroom, so I hopped on out of curiosity – and promptly wished I hadn’t. I can’t be 2.8kg lighter than when I left Christchurch, can I? I’m hoping that maybe they just weren’t particularly accurate scales… But, it would appear I can’t afford to leave any of the food behind on the next leg though!

So far on this journey, the only thing that has brought me close to tears has been trying to tidy up this website…. all on my mobile phone, rather than a computer that would have been a lot better for the job. However, after 3 hours it was finally looking a lot better and the blog posts were almost done. Thanks for the spell checking Mum!

Rain was forecast, but never seemed to eventuate so I ventured into the main street for a tasty Indian lunch. It was so good I went back again the next day. The main supermarket is about 2.5km away though, way up the other end of town. I wasn’t keen to walk that far, and after a couple of other stops returned to the comfort of the B&B.

Next on the agenda was trying to decide whether to leave the next day, or stay one more night. I checked the weather forecasts for the next 4 days of stops (all campsites), and reread other people’s experiences of the section, along with the trail notes. Phoning DOC Kaitaia & Kerikeri helped to reassure me that the weather wasn’t looking too bad, but I still just wasn’t overly keen. It was hard to decide to allow myself an extra rest day – I really don’t know why. It will be better for my feet and body to be fresher for the next 4 days.

After deciding, at least I could relax and watch the White Ferns play England, and muck about with this site some more.

At 9am the next day, there was thunder, lightening, and it bucketed down for about ten minutes. I think I made the right decision! It fined up and after sticking new blister prevention patches in my shoes, I tested them out with a wander. I noticed that quite a few signs in Kaitaia have ‘Dobrodošli’ on them. After googling it, I realised I should really go to the museum since I have time now. It’s also located in Te Ahu, a really nice centre of many things. I also figured out the library there has computers anyone can use, so now I’m happily typing this on a real keyboard! Happy times!

The museum was well worth a visit, and the history of the region is of course very different to anything down south.

I’m feeling well rested, and ready to take on the Northland forests that are much talked about in TA blogs and groups. It feels like the final initiation section of Te Araroa. Will Raetea be full of knee-deep mud and as awful as everyone says? Or will the dense bush actually be really beautiful, and have enough orange triangles? I hope so 😊