Days 30-35: A Marathon and a Forest Crawl

Another 5 days down, another 120 km behind us. We're up to kilometer 720, and are approaching the one quarter mark on the trail.

Days 23-29: Back to Where We Started

We've arrived back in Auckland! 600 km down, only 2400 more to go. It only took a few hours on a few buses to get from here to our starting point, but it took us more than 3 weeks to get back on foot. I can confidently say that the foot route is much more interesting though.

Days 20-22: Ocean Beach, Bream Head, Waipu

Wow, what a packed few days we've had! We covered some serious ground and have come 90 kms in 2.5 days (although we didn't actually walk quite that many - read on). We also had some amazing views, a great campsite, and a 60th birthday party! We've come about 425 total kms so far, and have probably about a week to go before we hit Auckland.

Days 14-19: Down the Coast

We arrived in Ngunguru yesterday, and are taking a rest day here at the Riverbank Homestay with amazing hosts Hilton & Melva Ward. They maintain (on a volunteer basis) nearby parts of the trail, and offer free camping to any Te Araroa trampers. After 2 days off in Kerikeri, we've come another 115km, for a total of 335km, and passed two significant waypoints on our way here: 10% (300 km) of the trail completed! and we walked all the way across the country (the easy way - west to east)!

Days 6-11: Forest, Forest, Forest, Road

So, we've finished another 120 kms of the trail, and are now in Kerikeri, a decently sized town near the east coast of NZ. This brings us up to 220 kms total, or 7.3% of the whole trail. This stat is alternately encouraging ("We're almost up to 10% and feels like we just started!") and scary ("220 kms felt like a long way and we've barely made a dent!").