Te Araroa Trail – Day 41
Thursday, December 14, 2023
Distance/ Total: 36.8 km / 22.9 mi
It sprinkled a little overnight and was still sprinkling intermittently when I woke up this morning. I had to force myself to get around this morning because I knew today was going to be all roadwalk.
It did start out with some pretty good views along the Mangaokewa Road as it wound it’s way up the valley past tree covered hills. The road was a well maintained gravel road with little traffic and the walk went pretty fast. About 12 km in the road started going through farmland with cow and sheep pastures on each side.
After 25 kilometers it turned onto paved Highway 30 with very little shoulder. The traffic was moving pretty fast and there were a lot of logging trucks on the highway. After 7 kilometers it turned off the highway and headed back towards the timber trail trailhead.
The Ngaherenga campground was about 0.5 kilometers past the trailhead and I arrived there about 4:00pm. I set up camp and visited with a couple from New Zealand doing the TA northbound to finish up a trip cut short in 2022. They plan to do the CDT in 2024 and had lost of questions about the trail.
I cooked dinner, ate, then retired to my tent for the night. My feet and legs are pretty sore from the long roadwalk and I’m looking forward to a good rest tonight to recover.
