Te Araroa Trail – Day 40

Wednesday, December 13, 2023
Distance/ Total: 20.7 km / 12.9 mi

I was up early but decided to spend my morning updating my blogs. I had gotten a few days behind and it will probably be 5-6 days before I’m back in town with Wi-Fi.

I finally finished up about 9:00 and started hiking out of town. The trail followed the road to the outskirts of Te Kuiti and then turned off into the bush to follow Mangaokewa Stream.

As I started walking along the trail I came across a volunteer trail maintainer using a weed eater to cut back the tall grass along the trail. We talked for a few minutes and he gave me some pointers on things to see along the trail.

The trail continued through farmland for awhile before cutting back into the forest along the stream banks. It was a nice trail through the trees with a few ups and downs as it followed the contour of the land. The trail passed a couple of waterfalls and I ate my lunch sitting beside one.

Eventually the well groomed trail ended and turned into more of a trampling track. It was mostly on steep hillsides along the stream with lots of ups and downs, steep climbs, and a few slides where the trail had washed away. As the trail progressed it also became wet and boggy in places making my shoes wet and muddy for most of the day.

The Mangaokewa Trail was about 15 km long and as I approached the north end it moved away from the river and onto a farm road through the bush and farmland.

Some landowners near the end of the track had set up a nice campsite for Te Araroa hikers. I got there about 5:30pm and set up my camp for the night. Although the trail had not been very long it was a challenging section and took longer than I had anticipated.

As I’m writing this the rain is starting and between the efforts of the day and the sound of rain on my tent I’m sure I’ll sleep good tonight.