Te Araroa (day 6) - Mangamuka Campground to (almost) Kerikeri / mile 128

This day didn't work out the way it should have, but that's the joys of hiking!

I woke up just before 6am with cows still crying in pain in the field across the campsite. When I was walking next to it, it became obvious that all of them decided to give birth that night and they were still carrying on (it was a large herd). It was cute to see all those newborn calves barely standing on their feet so I had to forgive their mother's my sleepless night.

I didn't check the GPS for half an hour and that was my first crucial mistake, instead of turning I went straight ahead (TA is not great with markers sometimes) I looked at the map and noticed that the road I was walking on rejoins the alternative trail in few kilometers so I made a decision to push on even though I will miss one of the "highlights of the entire trail" as someone called walking along the Waipaia river. Hiking can be like this sometimes, you make one wrong decision and it changes the entire day.

The alternative trail was mostly a gravel road going through Puketi forest, nothing amazing, but it wasn't bad either. Soon enough I took a wrong turn AGAIN, and had to maneuver through it to go back, there was a way forward luckily so I didn't have to backtrack it.

At this point I made a decision to push past the official (and paid of course) campsite to which I would have to detour from my alternate route, and that would be yet another nuisance. Instead I decided to stealth camp on one of the farmers fields just few miles before Kerikeri, which was much more exciting, it looked like the farmland was for sale so no one would bother me about it, I got quite conspicuous spot as well just to stay away from any potential problems.

Overall, one of the days I wish went differently but I'm not upset that it turned out like this, the weather was great I saw some interesting wild birds and took few good shots of farm animals. C'est la vie.