Te Araroa, Day 40

Today, there is only a 19 km road walk ahead. We can walk on the Old Te Kuiti road to reach Te Kuiti and, with that, avoid the highway. We won’t walk further than Te Kuiti today since it is the last town for a couple of days, and the next stretch to the next possible accommodation (tent site) will take approximately 9 hours.

I will also pick up a pair of new shoes there, that my colleague from Auckland sent to me.

I start walking to Te Kuiti at 7:50 am. The road is a constant up and down through the rolling farm hills. At a quarter past 12, I arrive at the Waitomo Lodge, the place we stay for the night.

After check-in at 1 pm, we walk into town, resupply at the supermarket, get pizza/fries, and pick up the shoes. I started this trail with shoes that I had already walked in, so they have covered about 1000 km. The soles are still not too bad, and they only began to get some holes, but I wanted to make the change now.

At 4 pm, the main chores are done, and I can do some more planning for the next days ahead.

On the way to Te Kuiti:

Te Kuiti calls itself the sheep shearing capital of the world:

Some more art:

New shoes: