Farmers Camp Waiwhiu to Puhoi – 25km (521km total)
We passed the 500km mark today. That is one sixth of the trail done or nearly 17% and we will be in Auckland in a couple of days. That is crazy to think about.
After yesterdays killer day. We decided a sleep in was in order. We would start hiking at 7.30am instead of 7am. Yep, we really take sleeping in to the extreme! However, when 6am came and it was time to wake up and start getting ready. I could have laid there and slept for a couple of more hours. Consequently, I was lethargic all morning.
It wasn’t a tough day and most of the elevation gain was on forestry roads, which is nice compared to straight up farmers fields or in forests. However, I was just tired today and plodded along.
I perked up a bit after lunch as we were only 6km away from the town we were aiming for and most of the walk into town was through a nice forest along a river and although it had some elevation gain, it was still nice.
We rolled into the town of Puhoi (yes, I also find that name funny! 😆) by mid afternoon. It is a small town and a really nice town. The toilet block has an outdoor shower, which most people took advantage of. It also has a really good pub and general store. There is no official campsite in town but the locals let TA hikers set up camp near the toilet block and river, as long as we set up camp near dark and leave in the morning. That meant that we had a good 5 hours of daylight to kill in town and I used them well. I think I went back to the general store three times to get more food and drink and we lounged around near the river and on picnic tables. I was in hiker food and drink bliss.
Today I am thankful for shorter days and general stores.
