TA Day 98

TA Day 98: Wednesday 26 March 2025

Waitomo - Kaimango Road / Kawhia Road

After yesterday's very tough day, we slept in and had a late start. Had some breakfast at the accommodation, luckily it was a good TA discount otherwise it wouldn't really have been worth it. Very simple and all of it pre-made in small packages.

The first 10 km was easy, mostly along roads, but then we started on a really nice trail.

We met a SOBO woman (section hiker) who was nice, but would never stop talking. After several long monologues, we could finally keep going. From here the trail got worse and worse. More and more overgrown and it was hard to follow the trail. After some time of gorse and thorns and cuts all over our legs, we had enough, and jumped a fence. On the other side of the fence was a super nice gravel road!

Of course you're not supposed to do that, and we felt a bit bad about it, but when the trail is in that condition... Well...

We followed the nice farm road all the way past the last gate, no issues at all, just the gnawing feeling in our gut that we had done something wrong. We jumped the last gate which was locked up, and saw the sign behind us - no trespassing. Oh well, shit.

Then we joined the TA trail again, and followed some nice old farm road that at first seemed too good to be true. Which it, in some ways, was since it started to get worse after some time with overgrowth (but less thorns this time) and some slips. It was still okay though!

The last 7 km we followed a gravel road, and the sun slowly lowered itself towards the horizon. In the distance we could see the ocean.

We walked the last few kms in darkness, and finally arrived at the place we would stay tonight - the Trail Angel "Jo's Funny Farm". We had some instant mash and sausages before going to bed on some mattresses in Jo's garage, happy with the day but very tired.

Today's:

Distance: 35.88 km

Ascent: 1130 m

Descent: 846 m

Tent nights: 50/98

Weather: Mostly sunny