Broadwood - Puketi Forest

After a chat and hot chocolate with the guys from the Broadwood dairy, hitched with the lovely Alan from Kaitaia for 8km of the first road, walked 3km on the hard shoulder and was then lucky enough to be picked up by Chloé and Jean again for the last 7km to Mangamuka village ready to start the walk into Puketi. Some pretty heavy rain today - but was made up for by meeting some great people at camp including Michelle and Bill (NZ) and Michelle and Dale (Aus).

Ground was super saturated at the site, so me and Malou (Germany) - a fellow literature student and bookseller who is doing upwards of 40km a day and planning to complete Te Araroa by December - decided to cowboy camp! Needless to say I likely won't see her again but great to make contact and we will try to meet again when we're both in Europe.Read more