Te Araroa Trail – Day 115
Friday March 1, 2024
Distance/ Total: 29.1 km / 18.1 mi
We didn’t get all our town chores done last night and had to take some extra time this morning to pick up a few more things at the grocery store and charge up our electronics. We finally headed out of town a little after 9:00am.
The trail continued to follow the Alps 2 Ocean Bike trail alongside Highway 8 for about 4 kilometers. We turned off the highway right after crossing over Boom Ruataniwha Dam. From here the trail followed a gravel service road along the edge of the lake and then followed the Ōhau River all the way to Lake Ōhau. The sun was pretty hot today and we took a few breaks to get out of the sun when we could. As we walk past Lake Ruataniwha we could see a rowing competition going on across the lake.
About 2 kilometers before the Lake Middleton Campground the trail joined a paved road and we made a final push to the campground. We arrived about 5:30 and setup camp. As we were getting our stuff ready for dinner one of the other campers there offered us a cold beer. We had to be polite, do we accepted his trail magic. It tasted great after a hot day walking.
