Te Araroa Day 6, Raetea Forest

Starting km: 136
Finishing km: 174
km walked today: 38

The muddy Herekino was only the first of the three testing Northland forests.  I mentioned in the last post that I hadn't found it that tough.  Forest #2, the Raetea was a much more challenging beast.  Just as much mud as Herekino, lots more up and down and plenty of downed trees and other impediments to navigation.

I woke really early (before 6) in an attempt to make it through the forest quickly, but my marginal fitness and all of the mud made even the modest 400m climbs of the Ratea tough.  This was made worse by the fact that near the high point of the day I lost the trail, then after re-finding it walked the wrong way for 15 minutes (I couldn't figure out why there was so much uphill after I'd supposedly reached the high point!)

All of this combined with low blood sugar from not having eaten enough for dinner the previous night or breakfast, leading to a slow and miserable time through the slippery downhills leading out of the forest.

My legs were COVERED in mud by the end of the forest, both from deep mud on the trail and slips and falls (my trekking poles saved me from having many more of these, but I managed to slightly bend one in the process.)

After leaving the forest, I still had something like 12km of road walking to do to get to my afternoon's destination, the dairy (and takeaway food stop!) in the town of Mangamuka.  I really pushed as hard as I could and made it at 14:50, 10 minutes before it closed for the day (it was a Sunday.

I stocked up on a few supplies and enjoyed a big bacon-egg burger, fries and a cold pop at the Mangamuka dairy.  I felt a bit guilty as the six TA walkers I'd passed during the day trickled in, watching me finish my meal but unable to get one themselves.

I forgot to take a screenshot of my campsite on the day.  It was at the "camp" shown above.  As usual, I did another good chunk of road walking through pasture and the beginnings of a conservation area after the dairy but before settling down for the night.  On this particular evening I had my tent all set up  when I had a read of the trail notes and read that DOC had requested only stay in one of two official campsites in the Omahuta and Puketi forests (I'd thought the restriction applied to Omahuta only.)  But by this time I was in bed and it was dark out, so there was little for it but to stick where I was for the night.