Kate, Sam, Laura and I got a lift from the owner of the farm to the small nearby highway, we decided to skip the next section because it’s 35 km of mostly farmland and road walking. Before we even started hitching on the highway, Sam and Laura already got a ride and he had room to take us too!
That brought us to another town where we got coffee then and had to catch another hitch to Waitomo, and we got a lift after the fourth car.
We got to Waitomo just after 10 and went stright to the glow worm caves and got in the 10:30 tour. The tour was one part regular cave tour, which is basically the same as any other cave tour, but then you get on a boat in the dark and get to boat through a cave which has the glow worms on the ceiling being reflected in the water. That part was amazing (no photos allowed, but if you google it you’ll see what it looked like) , but the tour and Waitomo in general are a little touristy for my taste.
After the tour we grabbed some lunch and then hiked the section between Waitomo and Te Kuiti. Which puts us in the area known as King Country The section was mixed pastures and small forest bits, but there was one part that had a ton of flowers that was particularly nice, and another part with some really tall trees that almost make you feel miniature.
At a certain point we got to a road and could either choose to road walk/hitch or keep hiking completely in pastures, I decided I had enough cow pastures so we hitched into Te Kuiti. It turns out the section we skipped is confusingly signed and lots of people are getting lost there, so it looks like that was a good choice.
We got picked up by Hunts Farm Backpackers (they are outside of town so they offer pickup), which was a wonderful place with hot showers and great views. In town we picked up steak, salad and wine for dinner… nom, and of course resupplied for the next section. It was one of those days where everything just seemed to go our way.
Km 871, but we probably only hiked 10-12 km.