The track coming down from Omaha forest wasn’t quite as muddy as the track going up, which I was thankful for. I slipped a couple times, but only fell on my ass once.
I figured if I could make it 45 km to the next town (Puhoi) I could take a zero (day with no hiking) and rest while a rainstorm passed.
The next section of woods was the Dome forest, which is a spectacular forest. There are jungle sections with lots of fern trees, there’s a section of large Kari trees, a nice view point and a lot of up and down.
I ran into Eddie, a hiker I met on my way up Ninety Mike Beach before I started, when he was on his way down the beach, so three days ahead of me. I stopped and filled water and grabbed lunch with him and two kiwi women. It was a great track, but at 2:00 I was only 15 km into my day and I knew I wasn’t going to make it all the way to Puhoi, the trail was just too intense.
So I slowed my pace, took a break at one of the view points. I tried texting Audrey and Katya to see how far behind me they were, but no response, if they started hiking early enough I knew they could be close.
It was about 4 when I got out of the forest, I was debating if I should hike another 15 km to my backup plan or look at one of the closer options. Then out of the woods come Audrey, Katya and James, and they were thinking of heading 2 km off track to Sheepworld which is a quirky campsite right next to the Sheepworld theme park, which James seems very excited about. After we got here Alex, Will and a couple whose names I forgot trickled in as well. No, I don’t know what Sheepworld is exactly, but I will be finding out.
489 km, only 19 km of trail + 2 km for the detour to Sheepworld