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Day 11-15: The Farm to Mangawhai. 281.5km - 449km - 🥾Te Araroa Trail - The North Island 🇳🇿



Day 11/50 🥾Te Araroa Trail - The North Island 🇳🇿


📍Supported by ZOLEO @zoleolifeeurope #ChallengeWithZoleo


ℹ️Stats: Date: Saturday 11th November

Weather: sunny & occasionally cool.

From: the farm (281k)

Start time: 8.08am

To: Mila's Backpacker Ranch, Ngunguru (347k)

End time: 8pm

Accommodation: camped 🏕️

Terrain: road, gravel road, forest tracks, more road, more gravel tracks,


🥾Km: 40.3k

🦶Steps: 51,771

Hitch 1 - 26k from 290 km to 308 on the detour


Total Km: 347/1600 21.7% ✅


💰Costs: $0


Subjective feeling out of 10 on:


Enjoyment: 9/10 - apart from my ankle it’s been a great day

Fatigue: 3/10 still feel strong.

Ease of terrain: 6/10 - maybe I’m starting to get use to the road walking. But it’s still hard.


Highlights: so much happened today. Leaving the farm, 9k road walk. Decided to hitch and the first truck that came past had Danny & Peter inside. Awesome to see them again. Phil (the driver) took us up past the diversion to km 8 - which made the day significantly easier. Carried on walking on more road, some some stunning coastal scenery, amazing views out to the coast. Made it all worth while.


Challenges: while setting up my tent, I stood in a divit and went over in my left ankle again. It’s not good.


 


Day 12/50 🥾Te Araroa Trail - The North Island 🇳🇿


📍Supported by ZOLEO @zoleolifeeurope #ChallengeWithZoleo


ℹ️Stats: Date: Sunday 12th November

Weather: hot & sunny ☀️

From: Ngunguru

Start time: 9.20pm - needed to head back into town to do resupply & get cash out.

End time: 6.15pm. In bed by 7.45pm

Accommodation: camped 🏕️

Terrain: so much road walking. 3.5k of forest walks


🥾Km: 24.7

🦶Steps: 31,747


Total Km: 362.4/1600* found out it’s actually 1715 km!!! So 21% ✅

Hitch- 2 - Approx 5k in total

River crossing: 2 (little ones)


💰Costs: resupply $84


Subjective feeling out of 10 on:


Enjoyment: 4/10 - one beautiful forest walk, one stunning coastal view.

Fatigue: 5/10 felt pretty wiped with all the road walking

Ease of terrain: 8/10 - brutal.


Highlights: the 3.5k forest walk was stunning and I really enjoyed it. The coastal town Pataua was stunning. Plus it’s been amazing weather. I also found a great camping spot for the night. 🏕️


Left the campsite at 9.20am - walked back into town, did resupply, got cash and then started the road walk. 10 k done. 2 hitches and at the start of the walk-in track at 1.20pm.


Challenges: left ankle, road walking, more road walking. Only progressing 15k on the TA track even though I’d walked 24k. Frustrating. The estuary low tide is at 1.40am or 2pm. I don’t want to cross in the dark and I don’t want to wait until 2pm tomorrow!


 

Day 13/50 🥾Te Araroa Trail - The North Island 🇳🇿


📍Supported by ZOLEO @zoleolifeeurope #ChallengeWithZoleo


ℹ️Stats: Date: Monday 13th November

Weather: hot & sunny ☀️

From: before the estuary

Start time: 7.40am

To: Reotahi

End time: 7pm

Accommodation: camping ⛺️

Terrain: road, forest, gravel track, beach, forest, steps, road, track.


🥾Km: 25.8km

🦶Steps: 33,061

Hitch 1 - about 4K down the road to go around the river 7.54am arrived. Was back on the TA by 9am


Total Km: 393/1715 = 23% ✅


💰Costs: $0


Subjective feeling out of 10 on:


Enjoyment: 8/10

Fatigue: 5/10

Ease of terrain: 9/10


Highlights: I loved today. It was glorious. It felt so much more balanced. Lots of the previous days have been 80/90% of road walking. Today there was stunning Beach walking, incredible ridgeline walking through the forest. It was tough going but really worth it.


Challenges: figuring out how to get across the river tomorrow… I don’t have transport arranged. I wonder how easy it will be to hitch a ride on a boat?!


 


Day 14/50 🥾Te Araroa Trail - The North Island 🇳🇿


📍Supported by ZOLEO @zoleolifeeurope #ChallengeWithZoleo


ℹ️Stats: Date: Tuesday 14th November

Weather: sunny - with rain in the afternoon

From: Reotahi Bay

Start time: 11.20am - after the water taxi 🚤 ride.

To: Camp Waipu Cove

End time: 6pm

Accommodation: camped 🏕️

Terrain: beach, road walking, beach, road walking


🥾Km: 25.8

🦶Steps: 33,082

Hitch 1 - final 3k to the campsite.


Total Km: 420/1715 = 24.5% ✅


💰Costs:$20 water taxi

$95 food resupply

$21 camping

Total $136


Subjective feeling out of 10 on:


Enjoyment: 7/10

Fatigue: 4/10

Ease of terrain: 5/10


Highlights: meeting soft serve (Katie) & Punisher while waiting for the water taxi! Some stunning views looking back over where I’d walked from.


Challenges: my pack was heavy after resupply! But can’t wait to eat all the food!!

I didn’t get chance to dry my tent ⛺️ and it was also raining when I put it up - so not even sure how dry it’s going to be!


 


Day 15/50 🥾Te Araroa Trail - The North Island 🇳🇿


📍Supported by ZOLEO @zoleolifeeurope #ChallengeWithZoleo


ℹ️Stats: Date: Wednesday 15th November

Weather: cooler today with a little bit of rain 🌧️

From: Camp Waipu Cove

Start time: 7.50am (1.5km walk from camp ⛺️ back to the trail at 420km marker)

To: Mangawhai

End time: 4.15pm

Accommodation: Trail Angel Hut with bed, wifi & charge ⚡️. Plus 2 chickens and a rabbit in the garden! Very chilled 😎

Terrain: road, gravel, forest, beach walk, road again.


🥾Km: 30

🦶Steps: 38,474


Total Km: 449/1715 = 26%✅


💰Costs: $10 donation to trail angel


Subjective feeling out of 10 on:


Enjoyment: 8/10

Fatigue: 4/10

Ease of terrain: 8/10


Highlights: meeting Kat (@katka.girethova) on the road and hearing about a trail angel 😇 cabin (with power & wifi)! She sent a text and there was room for me 🥳.


😍Stunning views on the coastal walk.


Making the cabin by 4.20pm - Kat cooking me dinner 🍽️ couscous with lentils, garlic, seeds, courgette & white sauce. Followed by a hot chocolate & 2 mini snickers 😋😋😋


Challenges: road walking - always!


 


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