Te Araroa Trail – Day 31
Wednesday, November 29, 2023
Distance/ Total: 35.8 km / 22.2 mi
The BnB had a Continental breakfast this morning and I took advantage of the food before taking off.
The trail continued as a road walk from Drury and headed up toward the Drury Hills and then across to an industrial park that was pretty busy with new construction.
Shortly after the industrial park the trail turned off and headed to the Mt Williams Walkway. This was just a grass walkway through sheep fields that headed up to the peak of Mt Williams. There was a good view of the surrounding area from the top and after reaching the peak I headed back down the south side. About 1/2 way down the trail entered another semi- tropical forest area with lots of stairs leading down to another road.
More road walk through the afternoon led across some farmland and the trail followed a small creek on top of a levee. The final stretch into Mercer was on a single track alongside NZ highway 2. There were several blow downs on this track and I crawled over and under them to get through.
I reached the Mercer Motel about 5:30 and was able to set up my tent in an area with other hikers for the night. There are about 8 TA hikers her tonight and I’ve met a few new ones I haven’t met before.
