Day 45: Waihaha Hut to Mangawhai Road/4WD Track (1003-1021)

Friday, January 13

The six of us (our group of four and the twins Dave and Mike) woke up to rain outside. Dave and Mike planned to get to Tamaranui today so they had to get going, but we only planned to get out of the forest and camp so we weren't in a huge hurry. By the time we left the hut between 8:30 and 9 it had stopped raining.

Julia, Puff Puff and Kristen were out of sight in no time, but it was a beautiful trail. The were some meadows by a river filled with beautiful purple flowers and happily chirping birds. It was gorgeous! I got a little turned around in the forest, but never got more than 40 meters from the trail. Sometimes when the trail makes a sharp turn I don't notice it right away but I realize pretty quickly the orange markers have gone away. Then I backtrack to find out where I went wrong. It's usually pretty easy to figure out.

Since it had rained much of the night and morning the trail was a little slippery but overall it was a beautiful, easy trail to Hauhungaroa Hut. I stopped about halfway there to eat some snacks and then met Kristen, Puff Puff and Julia at the hut. We hung out for a bit and I filtered enough water for dinner tonight and walking tomorrow since we didn't plan to camp by a water source. The trail notes and signs all said the trail would take us about 2 hours to walk the 7 kilometers out of the forest, so I figured it would be a pretty east trail. It

We left the hut in the late afternoon. The sky was still blue with nice white puffy clouds. I quickly lost sight of Puff Puff, Julia and Kristen and realized that this trail was going to take me a lot longer than 2 hours. It was so muddy and slippery I fell on my butt twice. I was annoyed my shorts were all muddy but other than that I was completely fine. I kept crossing rivers and rinsing my feet off only to get them muddy again, but at least the mud never got past ankle-deep.

Around 8 pm I made it to the campsite we had decided to camp at. Kristen, Julia and Puff Puff had their tents up and I put mine up and got ready for bed. We're all really excited for a good meal or two in Tamaranui, a 30-kilometer 4 WD track and road walk from our campsite, so we're planning on an early start tomorrow.

A nice gate to let me know where to go on the trail.

Kristen's photo of me taking on some vertical trail.