Te Araroa (day 19) - Te Kuiti to Manawatu Manganui / mile 575

"Easily the best/worst section so far" Gregory

In the morning I walked down to The Kuiti and sat outside New World supermarket, it was 6:30am, half an hour before it's opening. I hanged the outer layer of the tent on a disabled parking sing to dry it and sat on the bench, workers were looking at me funny but no one said anything. I logged in to New Worlds wifi and went through the messages, there was one from Nil saying: "I'm staying at a trail angel at Te Kuiti, she told the next section is very bad and people are skipping it and going directly to the mountain" I was quite confused at first but after exchanging few messages I worked it out. Next 10 miles after The Kuiti were quite overgrown (because people were skipping it all the time), Nil was trying to warn me about it and asked me if I'm also skipping. I told him that I might hitch it if it's really that bad.

New World opened and I resupplied for four days, it was a bit on a low side considering next town was in 100 miles but it also gave me incentive to push forward. I had some fried chicken and baguette for breakfast and decided to see if I'll manage to get a hitchhike out of town but the road was empty and few of the drivers that passed were not even looking at me so after fifteen minutes I decided to hit the trail. Nil texted that he will also try to catch a ride but I don't know if he was successful as I went into 'no reception' land.

First few kilometres of the trail were overgrown with tall grasses it instantly made all my clothes wet. Then the trail turned into a gorgeous path along the river which made me question all it's criticism but it didn't last long. Banks of the river were eroding, a lot. Trail was manoeuvring up and down through the bushes and wetlands trying to connect the dots. Luckily it was a sunny, dry day. I can only imagine amounts of slips and falls here during the rainy day. The trail markers were also way behind the current state of the path, they were more confusing than useful and sometimes leading straight to the river or over the fence, and it was a fence hopping day indeed. Many times path was barely visible on the grass and easily mistaken for sheep paths. I slipped and fell few times trying to follow my GPS going downhill through a long, wet grassland. It was irritating, but also strangely satisfying.

The trail was chaotic and confusing but the scenery was great and walking along the river gave it even more character. If only someone maintained this stretch better it would be one of the nicest parts of Te Araroa so far but sadly it wasn't the case.

After ten miles of that beautiful maze, trail stepped onto a gravel road and never left it, now that was boring. I managed to get a short, few mile hitchhike here with Sean and Gareth, a father and son going to team up with a local friend for a deer hunting expedition. They had to rearrange all their hunting gear from the back seat to fit me in. Gareth was only about 12, but I didn't ask about moral inclinations of him going on a hunt, after all they were helping me out. The ride lasted few minutes but it still saved me an hour of walking along the hot gravel road without much water access.

From here I only walked five more miles until 6pm and at that point it was enough action for one day. There was no official campsite in the area, so I had to hop yet another fence and set up a tent in a small woodland on a farm. It was full of sheep faeces and cow bones but was nicely sheltered from the road and nearby houses, so it was unlikely someone would spot me.

I ate, and went to bed. Sounds of the evening would be sponsored by young sheep calling their mothers, chirping blackbirds and testosterone induced bull shrieks. Soon it got dark and the farm went silent.