Te Araroa Trail – Day 14
Sunday, November 12, 2023
Distance/ Total: 24.9 km / 15.5 mi
The dew settled in on everything again last night and the freshly mowed grass we had camped on was now sticking to everything.
I packed up and hit the trail about 7:00 am. Today started out with an 18 km paved roadwalk to Helena Bay. The road was pretty narrow in places with no shoulder and there was a moderate amount of traffic. I had to step down into the ditch and wait for cars to pass at times.
I reached Helena Bay about noon and found a picnic table there to eat lunch. However there was no shade so I ate quickly and moved on.
They was a short roadwalk before the trail turned off onto a single track section through the forest. There were several very steep sections that went straight up the side of the mountain. It was about 6 km through the forest to the campsite we had selected for the night. I stopped and collected some water from a cow tank before reaching camp.
There was a northbound couple at camp when I arrived and several other hikers came in as the afternoon progressed. We all ate dinner about 6:00 pm and talked until about 8:00 before breaking off and heading to our tents.
