Woke up to a nice sunrise from the top of Raetea peak.
Everyone else in camp wanted to aim for the next campsite, which made for two smaller days, instead I thought I’d try to hike both in a day and make if all the way to Apple dam (or Apple tree) campsite, which is close to 30k. So I got packed up early and left camp by 7, figuring if I was tired by then the time I got to the closer site I could always just stay there.
The mud was just as intense as the day before, somehow I managed to keep my feet dry… until the very last stretch of mud on the trail and both feet went in past the ankle. From there you walk across a bit of farm land. Easy waking, kind of a nice change. At the end I had to walk through a yard with a bunch of barking dogs on chains, it mentioned it in the trail notes and said it was fine, but it felt super strange!
After that there was a lot of road walking, some of it on Rt 1 which is annoying, but there was a dairy (connivance shop) on the way where I stopped for lunch. I was hoping for a beer and a burger but they had no beer and the burger I got with bacon and egg was actually a bacon and egg sandwich… the burger had no burger. Mind you I was hungry enough that I was happy all the same. The next 14 km was on a gravel road first trough farmland then forest.
I made it to Apple tree campground around 4:30, it’s a nice site next to a pond and there I got to have a fire! This puts me right at the beginning of the Omahuta forest.
As I exited Raetea forest I saw a watch on the ground which I picked up. I figured if throw it online on the Te Araroa fb page and e see if anyone claimed it, but it actually belonged to a woman at Apple tree campsite, I’m glad I picked it up.
Beautiful photos. The kids missed having you here for Halloween. Hope it’s less muddy on the next part of the trail!