• Te Araroa Day 11
• Makene Rd Campsite to Apple Tree Camp (Omahuta Forest) – 19.9 km in 5 hours 40 minutes
• Books finished since starting trail: 2

Last night was my first real decent sleep in the tent since I started this journey. It rained quite a bit overnight, and I’d left my washing on the line hoping it would dry quickly in the sun once it came up. Tucked away in a valley, it took quite a while for the sun to hit and I spent a lazy morning reading in my tent. I ended up not leaving until midday. At least the tent was dry, my clothes were mostly dry but wearable, and my pack felt a bit lighter.

Due to the slip in the Mangamuka Gorge blocking the road, state highway 1 is really quiet around here. There was almost zero traffic – stoked! Unfortunately there were more loose dogs that came racing out of their gate barking their heads off but called back by a far away voice just in time. This happened between Ahipara & Kaitaia too. Animals so far have been the most challenging thing on this journey, and I’m an animal person…

I made it to the tiny settlement of Mangamuka and the famous dairy which I knew was closed on weekends. At least it had a nice shady spot out front to eat lunch. Tomato couscous was nice, but an ice-cream would have been amazing. If you’re going to do the TA – plan to pass through here on a weekday when they’re open! I just couldn’t get my schedule to fit alas..

After that, it was all gravel road. Happenings included: accidentally spilling my trail mix at a break, but applying the 5 second (more like 5 min) rule and picking up every last macadamia nut! Having reception but not really able to do much without fretting about my phone battery. A sudden convoy of eight 4WD vehicles, after it had been about one vehicle an hour. They seemed like older couples who all waved enthusiastically, and I felt like maybe they were a walking club off on a Sunday afternoon outing. I saw no further sign of them though.

The last section entered Omahuta Forest, and continued on uphill. My feet were hurting again, but today with dry feet the tape and plaster stayed in place. The left foot tape had slid, so I ripped it off and unfortunately ripped some of the skin off that smaller blister a bit – oops. I’m wondering if my heels are actually bruised, because that’s what it’s beginning to feel like? There’s a lot of time to ponder things like this while walking 😅

Tonight’s campground is just a patch of grass, with lots of rocks under the surface making it hard to get tent pegs in. Hopefully it won’t rain overnight… There is a stream nearby for water, and a couple of very old long drops. I can see why the campground isn’t listed on DOC’s website anymore! But at least it’s free..

I dragged the cooking, dinner, clean up process out for a while, but am really glad I bought my eReader. I’m not sure what people without a book or eReader do in these quite long evenings camping.

It was good to have more of a chill out section today between the two big forest days, you can switch off a bit. It was still a tiring climb uphill at the end, but I’m hoping another good night of sleep will stand me in good stead for tomorrow’s reasonably long day. It should be cool to walk through the stream though, I’m looking forward to that and seeing some Kauri trees.