Te Araroa (day 17) - Pirongia Forrest to The Rauamoa / mile 522

Today was a bit of a downer, nothing was particularly bad about it but there wasn't much good too. All my clothes were wet from last night, I put them on in the morning luckily it wasn't raining anymore. Then I packed the wet tent trying to keep it away from sleeping bag best I could.

First task was to climb 959 m Mountain Pirongia, after yesterday's rain the trail was full of water so it didn't take long for my feet to get soaking wet again, rest of my clothes were steadily getting dryer though. It took four hours to get to the top, trail was overgrown and had few rock scrambling sections, DOC build a cool viewing point at the top of it, unfortunately it was quite foggy.
Trail was passing next to Pahautea Hut, one of many huts Department Of Conservation build along Te Araroa. It was quite impressive, it had an emergency helicopter landing pad, separate toilet and shower facilities, many tent pitching spots with individual entrances and of course the hut with rubber mattresses, bunk beds and living area.
From here trail was going mostly downwards through another deep mud rain forest section, similar to the one we walked after 90 mile beach. I want to say this one was easier but since my body took some bashing since that time it actually wasn't. It took me over three hours to navigate through it, my legs were completely plastered with mud. On the other side I've met a large group of hikers they were sitting by the stream we could wash our legs in. It was 1pm and I only walked 11 miles, it was a very slow going day.
My feet started to give me problems, they looked like I have run a cheese grater over them, they were wrinkled from moisture which encouraged blisters to show up. I decided to only walk another 9 miles and call it a day. I found a nice meadow at around that point, I've hanged all my wet clothes on a fence, tended to my feet and had a supper. Luckily it was not meant to be raining for the next couple of days and the next town was less than 25 miles away.

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