TA Day 121
TA Day 121: Friday 18 April 2025
Kerikeri - Louies Stream
Now it was time to wake up early again as we had a long way to walk today. But it was so nice to be inside so we still didn't rush too much.
It didn't rain this morning and we thought we could sense the sun behind the clouds, and after hiking for 15 km, we even felt the sun on our backs and could see our shadows.
We reached a gravel road, and entered a beautiful forest with big Kauri trees. There was even a walkway loop you could take there. We decided not to, because of the already long day.
Then we continued onto another gravel road, where there for some time was only us... Until some cars started driving past us a few times. One looked like it was driven by some some teenagers. It was probably one of the weirdest things we'd seen. Two of the teenagers was on the truck bed with two dogs. And then there was another dog, standing ON THE HOOD! It looked both dangerous and very uncomfortable for the dog.
Not that much later, we almost caught up to a car that had stopped, and just before we reached it, we saw a guy chuck some trash into the ditch, hop in the car and drive off.
And then, another car passed us, now one person was hanging out the window and trying to maneuver the wipers because it was raining.
We looked at each other and wondered what kind of circus of a road we had ended up on.
The rain came and went, and we usually managed to dry up in between the showers. But it was a long day, and our feet, especially Kim's feet, we're hurting.
But we pushed on.
For Kim it felt like forever reaching the tent, but for some weird reason this day went by fast and easy for Lukas.
Just before reaching our planned tent spot, another heavy shower came and soaked us. Fantastic.
We pitched our tent in the rain and crawled inside. Not much longer, it stopped raining.
We made our delicious Backpacker Meals and went to bed.
When we were about to sleep we suddenly saw flashing lights. At first Lukas thought it was just his phone, but when we turned it off, we saw it again. Kim looked outside and saw the entire sky flash. But all was silent, and there was even some holes in the cloud cover now. What could it be? Looked like lightning, but it was silent, blinked too many times and too quick to be car lights, and happened very irregularly, but didn't stop.
Today's:
Distance: 42.50 km
Ascent: 957 m
Descent: 959 m
Tent nights: 56/121
Weather: Overcast morning, rainy and a bit windy afternoon
