Te Araroa Trail – Day 2

Tuesday, October 31, 2023
Distance Today/ Total: 19.5 km/ 12.1 mi

The rain lasted until about midnight, but the strong winds continued through the night. My tent fell in on me 3 times and I had to reach out and reset the stakes in the loose sand. Th last time it fell in was about 5:30 and I gave up and just got up and started getting around.

I was hiking by about 6:30 and climbed up over the sand dunes and back down to the beach. Low tide was at 5:23 am so I had a nice wide beach to walk on. The water packed the sand in pretty tight and the walk was almost like walking on concrete. I made pretty good time down the beach.

It was still foggy when I started and about 8:00 the mist started and soon gave way to rain. It rained on and off through the rest of the morning.

With only 20 km (12 mi) to the next campsite I made it there before noon. I contemplated continuing on, but the next campsite was an additional 30km (20 mi) away and I wasn’t up to such a long day this early in the trip.

I decided to stay at the Maunganui Bluff campsite and set my tent up behind a large bush to block the wind. I ate lunch and spent the rest of the day just resting in camp and visiting with other hikers as they made there way to not camp.

Dinner time rolled around and we all fixed our dinners and visited around the shelter before breaking off and heading back to our tents as the sky started getting dark.

My plantar fasciitis is still bothering me today and I spent quite a bit of time stretching it ou and massaging it this afternoon. I’m m hoping for a better day tomorrow.