Te Araroa – Day 72

Pukerua Bay to Ngaio – 37km (1666km total)

The campsite on the beach was lovely, but we woke up to drizzling rain. So I packed up everything in my tent and had breakfast, before heading out into the drizzle. The morning was better was than I expected. On paper it was about 12km along the highway. However, the trail was on a walkway that was slightly removed from the highway, so there were not cars and trucks flying by only 30cm from you.

By mid-morning we made it to Porirua for morning tea. Our first climb for the day started after Porirua up to Colonial Knob. It was windy and drizzly all the way up and I have a lovely photo from the top of cloud.

As I descended down the sun started to come out and at the bottom there was another 5km road walk and the sun was bouncing off the tarmac and making it hot. Then began the next climb up to Mt Kaukau, apparently the windiest place in Wellington. The climb up actually wasn’t too bad. It was just under 500m elevation but over 5kms, so there were not too many steep parts.

At the top I texted the lady whose house we had arranged to stay at for the night and it was a short half hour down to her house, where we were fed and able to shower and sleep in a real bed.

Tonight I am thankful for trail angels who offer their homes as place for hikers to sleep.