• Te Araroa Day 26
• Mangawhai to Pakiri Beach – 23km in 6 hours 20 minutes
• Fruit eaten today: a banana, apple, 5 feijoas and a mandarin

If you’ve been reading this blog, looking at the photos, thinking you wish you were here… This should kill your FOMO 😂

My feet were a little tender this morning, but it seemed like it would be a shorter, easier day. I wrote in Mark & Kerry’s visitor’s book and laughed at this which was on the front page:

The trail heading out of Mangawhai was probably the best part in hindsight! I noticed these road signs looking back:

It seems there’s a bit more freedom with what goes on town entry signs up here. It got me thinking, has Darfield missed a trick? Imagine ‘Delightful Darfield’… I thought for a bit about Dunedin, however that was as far as I got.

Next the road became gravel, and it was probably the busiest gravel road I’ve ever seen, with cars driving quite rapidly. Earlier in the trip I was surprised by 30km/h speed limits and signs mentioning dust nuisance quite a bit. There was one lonesome sign on this stretch which said “your dust, our nuisance” – I felt sorry for the residents who actually cared. It was a mystery where all the traffic was from or heading too. The only highlight in 5 kilometres of dust inhalation was passing into the Rodney District. Today was also the first day of the Auckland section of trail notes!

I really needed to go to the toilet but there was only pine forest with no cover, the busy road, and a very exclusive looking golf course with gated entries – oddly in the middle of this pine forest. I hoped the beach car park would have one. It didn’t… But, there was a map indicating that 2.7 km along the beach there was one. Off I motored.

This section of beach was quite nice as the sand was hard-ish. A surf school was having a lesson near the small headland I went up and over. I felt really tired about here so stopped to have lunch – two left over puddings mixed together but mango and raspberry is a good combo.

Forestry Beach is aptly named… The tide was almost peaking so it really was the worst possible time to be walking. In hindsight, I should have sat in the shade at the headland for an hour or two. Ever hopeful, I thought I’d give it a go. I trudged on and on, each step sinking in. Thank goodness for podcasts. One stream crossing didn’t eventuate, I presumed due to lack of water. Everywhere in Northland there have been signs about preserving water, and I was surprised to look back and see sprinklers on the posh golf course. I see on their website they are helping protect the endangered Fairy Tern / Tara Iti birds, so points for that at least.

Finally the beach trudge was over and I just had to cross the Pakiri River. It looked ok, and thankfully although the tide was still high it was only shorts-deep. The holiday park staff were super friendly, gave me my resupply box, 12 feijoas from their staff stash, and chatted about how they’re trying to go plastic free – working on their shop supplies etc. What legends!!! They had a cheap rate for TA hikers on cabins, and the pillows were so comfortable. There were even tea towels in the kitchen! The kitchen, laundry, bathroom, were only about ten metres from my cabin. There was hardly anyone staying, and there was a TV lounge with sofas 😍 All these things made me instantly happy.

Then the logistics of tomorrow almost did my head in, but I got a reply saying I can camp at a house along the trail and avoid a super long day or expensive Air BnB.

In hindsight, I could apply something like the chart from Mark & Kerry’s to today. Was I exhausted? Yes… Did my feet and legs hurt? Yes… Did I enjoy the dusty road? No… Is my sweat rash really painful? Yep…Did I die? No… Did I find another awesome place to stay? Yes Have I walked closer to Wellington? Yes

Today I read that almost a third of New Zealand’s car trips are 2km or under… That’s crazy!! I hope more people can start walking, biking, scootering etc.