11/3/22, Day 99, 48km, Total 2629km
Elevation Gain: 1558, Loss: 1504m
My longest day in terms of hours and distance.
I left at 7.30am after a cup of coffee at the local café. Nearly all road walking to the Whananaki footbridge. The 395m long one. Stopped at the Dairy for some lunch at 1pm.
A short road walk and the Trail entered the Whananaki forest. Some confusing signs saying that the forest was closed but I had been told to ignore those signs so I did. The track was mostly pretty good but lots of up and down as it followed ridges most the way. It was sad to see all the work stopped that was upgrading the track when the Maori owners suddenly revoked access permission.
It was dark when I finally arrived at the road and Trail Angel Dave came and picked me up. Dave and Alex are wonderful hosts at their off grid home. A really cool place. I wasn’t long out of bed after my longest day of 12 hours hiking and 48km. I feel OK though.
