Te Araroa Trail – Day 131
Sunday March 17, 2024
Distance/ Total: 19.9 km / 12.4 mi
After the late night we were a little slow getting around this morning. It was 8:20 before we got back on the trail. The trail stayed up on the ridge along the pine tree windbreak for about 1/2 kilometers before dropping back down into the valley near the river.
The grass down by the river was wet with dew and it didn’t take long for the overgrown grass to soak our pants. The trail followed the fence line like it did yesterday, but we had better luck finding the trail this morning. We did get off track a few times but were able to find our way back to the trail fairly easy each time.
We reached the end of the farmland walk about 10:30am and took a short break on the road before starting our road walk into Te Anau. The road walk was a gravel road with very little traffic. We made pretty good time and reach the paved highway about 1:30pm. It was a short 2.5km on the highway to Princhester Road where we began to hitch a ride into Te Anau.
We were able to catch a ride in about 10 minutes and we’re soon at the Te Anau Central Backpackers checking in for the night. Getting to the room, I quickly started gathering up my dirty clothes and jumped in the shower to get cleaned off. I did my laundry and then with clean clothes Shaun and I headed for dinner.
We had wood fired pizza for dinner with a salad and I had a couple of beers to go with it. After eating we headed to the grocery store to by our resupply for the next 5 days and went back to the hostel to repackage for our next section.
