Te Araroa, Day 63

This was hard. In the description it says: "All bushwalking with stream crossings."

The stream crossings were not that bad.... but let's start from the beginning.

Waking up in the morning, the tent is totally wet. There was rain and there will be some more rain to come. We pack our wet tents and I start walking at 6:15 am.

There is a short section of forest road with a steep climb at the end and a pretty view:

Then we enter the rain forest:

The rain forest is pretty, no doubt.

We have a long steep and muddy descent before we come down to a river:

We cross the river a few times when, suddenly, there is a detour. Disputes with the private landowner resulted in TA walkers being unable to walk along the river anymore.

The detour is a long and very steep climb up a hill. There is no real path since there has never been one. It is muddy, of course, and at one point, we have to crawl underneath a braid of lianas, branches, and twigs on a steep, muddy climb.

The moment we get up to the top, the markers lead us walking down again steeply. The detour is quite long. At the end, there is an open space with a bench and table.

We take a long break. When we start walking again, rain starts too. Now there is a seemingly endless up and down in the muddy rainforest. It is very slow walking. Everything is wet.

At a small stream, we have another, short break.

I learn that tomorrow there is 18 km of just that: "18 km / 8–9 hours. All bushwalking with multiple stream crossings," meaning mud and water, no real track, etc. X lets me know that he is not going to do this.

And there are two more things that are not appealing right now: The day after tomorrow, there would be about 3 days in the Tararua mountains. We learn by looking deeper into our information that there are simple huts but no suitable ground for setting up tents. Those huts are small, with mattresses next to each other, meaning walkers cramp in together laying next to each other. I am not keen on that, also because we have observed that as long as there is no hot shower, people, in general, do not wash, and then it is not pleasant.

Furthermore, due to some detour, there would be a round of mud walking after those 3 days too. I have no problem deciding not to walk this.

From the campsite we will be tonight, we can reach a gravel road tomorrow that would bring us out of the mountains. The plan is to walk around them. I feel good with that decision.

When we finally reach the campsite, we wash our mud-covered clothes in the river and try to dry them, as well as shoes and socks. No success though. Rain is there on and off. I put some wet stuff in the tent, and of course, it does not dry there too.

At the shelter tonight, there is also Claudio, the Italian guy, and a Dutch guy. Both stay in the shelter. Both seem to feel the same about this day: Not something you want to do again.