Day 5: Ahipara to Kaitaia (14 km, 4 hours)

It was a comfy bed, and a great night's sleep!

Easy day today. I headed off at 7:30am, and it was a road walk all the way back to Kaitaia.

There wasn't much of a verge to walk on for much of the road, it fell away at a 45 degree angle. I ended up walking on the edge of the road and jumping down into the steep verge every time a car approached. But, it was only 14 km, and there was a path as I got closer to Kaitaia. 

Some friends I met on the way.

And some more. The whole herd followed me the entire length of the field.

Nice cloudy day, good for walking. And no need for my dorky sunhat and shirt!

My 10:00 pic. There’s a little track through the dandelions here.

I was in Kaitaia by 11:30am. I stopped by the I-site info centre to rent a personal locator beacon (PLB) for the rest of the trip. Had a lovely chat with Jo there, very helpful and bubbly - I must send her an email when I’m back home to let her know how I get on. Then on to the Beachcomber backpackers.

I’ve decided to skip my planned rest day tomorrow, and head straight into the next section through the Raetea and Puketi forests. Partly that’s because I want to get through this before the possible bad weather that might hit over Christmas; and also because my shin is not as bad as it was in recent days. The next 5 days will be very different to the last - dense forest, steep hills, and lots of mud! And potentially even longer days. We’ll see how my leg handles the different terrain.

So. a lot of prep to do today: restock my food, repack, a bit of washing, study the trail notes ahead, etc.

Maybe I need a bigger pack!

I’ll be needing to conserve my phone battery for the next 5 days, as I’ll be using it for navigation. So I will probably keep it in airplane mode most of the time, or powered off. Plus there will be no phone coverage for much of this next section. So, probably no more blog updates until I get to Kerikeri on Christmas Eve (hopefully 🤞).

I’d better get back to my preparations. Looking forward to reaching Kerikeri!