Te Araroa (day 69) - Manova Lakes Campsite to Te Anau / mile 1743
Today I was mainly trying to run away from rain through an obstacle course of blow down trees. It was raining all night but my sturdy MSR tent took it really well and most of everything was dry in the morning. It stopped at 7am and despite the weather forecast announcing thunderstorms the sky was looking fairly clear. It was still 30 miles before I could get a hitchhike to town (or so I though at the time) so I was trying to get as far as I could to have a longer day off tomorrow. Initially trail was wet but easygoing, running along a four wheel drive. Eventually it went over a bridge to the other side of the lake and into the forest, here the issues begun. Despite the visible effort of Department of Conservation to keep it tidy, path was full of blow down trees and it looked more like a obstacle course from ninja warrior than a trail. After 5 kilometres of it I was done and took an alternate path running alongside the gravel road on the other side o...