Te Araroa (day 5) - Saddle Road Campground to Mangamuka Campground / mile 100
"Ultralight, cold at night" Didi, a hikers proverb (apparently) A crazy day of hiking! The trail was going through a rain forrest and the path was extremely muddy, sometimes up to a knee high, it took me 8 hours to go through 16 kilometres of it but it was well worth it, I've never walked through such a terrain, forest was extremely dense and surprisingly quiet, it rained for few hours but it didn't really influence the condition of the trail. At the end I couldn't even take my shoes off to wash them in the stream, I had to untie them and force it off my feet. I managed to reach Mangamuka just before the local convenience shop (or dairy as it's called by locals) has been shut at 5pm, bought a coke, peanut butter ice-cream and portion of chips and paid 10$ for a night at the local campground by the radio station. I've been joined by Miriam from Switzerland and not long after Didi and To...