Day 7: Raetea summit to Makene Rd campsite (12km, 5.5 hours)

I woke up to realise I was in the cloud layer. Everything was damp!

Clouds starting to clear.

By the time the tent was packed up, I was off at 7am. The terrain was the same as yesterday, following from peak to peak through the forest. But as I started at the highest point, this meant there were more downhills than uphills. It was still tiring - the ups and downs made for slow progress, and the rough terrain meant always needing to take care. 

My shin was sore from the outset, after yesterday’s effort. I found going downhill was the hardest - less controlled, more jarring. Again I was hobbling a lot of the day, which slowed me down. So today was tough - but I am so glad I managed to do the hike up to Raetea summit yesterday! Trying to do yesterday’s hill climb AND today’s forest tramp in a single day would have been too much.

It’s always good to see a sign. 

These creepers are like tripwires!

My 10am pic

Eventually, after a final very long downhill stretch, the trail emerged into farmland.

Goodbye, Raetea forest.

The path goes through a farmyard with some notoriously barky and savage-looking dogs. However a local girl saw me coming and came up to chat - the first person I’ve spoken to for almost two days. She showed me the detour around the farmhouse and pointed the way down a gravel road to the next campsite.

Thanks for the company Darcy!

Makene Rd campsite is a little grassy area, with a picnic table and long drop. Similar to the site I didn’t use on the other side of Raetea Forest. But, this one has a little stream.

Only me at the campsite again tonight.

A late lunch - cottage pie!

I’d been conserving water today. I was carrying 4.5 litres when I set off up into the forest yesterday, but I drank a lot going up that first hill, so I was managing it carefully today and feeling very thirsty. The first thing I did at camp was drink about 2 litres from the stream. There was a little pool in the stream too, so I went for a dip to wash off the sweat and cool my shin. Very refreshing!

Fancy a dip?

The rest of the afternoon I rested up. My shin isn’t particularly swollen any more which is good, but it is sore and I’ve been limping around camp. It’s clearly rough ground and downhills that aggravates it - tomorrow will be mostly road walking, so hopefully that will give it a chance to heal.

A farmer (the camp owner) passed by and said he’d seen a wild pig nearby. Later, a whole family of them passed by while I was in my tent, I guess coming down to the stream to forage. There must have been about 20 altogether, including piglets. They were snuffling and grunting around me until well after dusk, as I fell asleep.

I wasn’t the only one at camp after all!