Te Araroa – Day 11

Apple Dam Campsite to Puketi Forest Campsite – 34km (205km total)

34km is too many to walk, particularly after Raetea Forest. I am going to assume that I will slowly adapt to that mileage but for the moment 25km is my max comfortable limit. My poor little feet are sore.

Despite walking too many km, the day was actually nice. This section is a reroute on forest service roads to prevent kauri dieback in Omahuta and Puketi Forests. I’m sure the forests are lovely but I didn’t mind the service roads, just the distance.

I leap frogged with C and F all day as I walked past many beehives. This did give me a brief flashback to the movie My Girl and I walked quickly past hoping I wouldn’t meet the same fate as Mackauly Calkin.

There was a lovely little waterfall along the way, which I would have liked to explore but the rocks were covered in moss and common sense prevailed as I saw the likelihood of me taking fall number 8 leading to a slip and slide over the waterfalls edge.

At the top of the climb there was a lovely view to a large lake in the distance which I was not expecting.

I crossed the 200km mark (only need to do this 14 more times) and there was a lovely little walk into a Kauri Sanctuary

Then I finally stumbled into Puketi Campground. Where there was a cold shower available. I washed the grime off of my legs and wiped the rest of myself. I would declare it camping luxury, but my feet have a slightly different story to tell.

Today I am thankful for unexpected views of lovely lakes.