Start – Te Kuiti (Casara Mesa backpackers)
Finish – TA km 933 (nr Mangaokewa)
Daily Distance – 20 km
TA Distance – 933 km
Short distance, beautiful scenery, but tough walking today. Mangaokewa scenic reserve is lovely, but the
“trail” is bordering on dangerous. After significant rainfall the sidle (narrow, off-camber, steep drop to
one side) track today was particularly slippery and prone to footholds giving way at the most inopportune
moment. My record for the day was 3 falls (no injuries, but 1 minor trail tantrum resulting in profanity
that would make a sailor blush), which wasn’t too bad considing the many brambles and gorse bushes
which were rudely tying their best to invade the path on the landward side. Having taken survey of the
many hikers in camp tonight, (confusingly German) Laura led the slippage leaderboard with 10 falls and
an impressive collection of grazes, although everyone has found the day hard. Camp tonight is populated
by almost exactly the same folk as the last 2 nights in Te Kuiti, which is nice as it can be tiring always
learning new names and having the same shallow “get to know you” type conversations. I imagine people
will become more spread out in the coming days though. This is especially true as a lack of viable
camping spots means tomorrow will be a tough 37km on a combination of gravel and tarmac roads. Not
fun, but the days after should be considerably shorter and easier.
Anyway, to end on a positive note, when the trail wasn’t trying to kill me it was really lovely. Green
meadows, foxgloves in abundance and even the occasional picnic table placed seemingly at random in the
middle of nowhere. Plus, not a rainforest in sight, so overall a pretty good day.
