It's Day 12 and I'm on the move again. Lovely coastal walk from Paihia around to Opua, where I caught the car ferry to the east coast. Passed lots of small bays, all with clusters of holiday homes, as the Te Araroa trail makes it's way south again. The weather is still beautiful, short sleeves all day and only need to grab my jacket after dark. Camped the first night just inside the Russell Forest, up on the ridgeline. It was really lovely with the setting sun fading through canopy, followed not long later by the rising moon. The local wildlife (many Moreporks) seems to be recoverying, now that DOC is active in predator control, even heard a couple of kiwi calling down in the valley.
I carried on along the ridgeline on the second day but then ran out of water. I'm carrying 2 litres, but by the time you cook an evening meal and then a chuppa for breakfast, there's not much left. So it was about 2 pm in the afternoon when I reached the first main water source for the day, a large clear stream close to a DOC camping shelter. I made this my second night in the forest, sleeping on a platform in the DOC shelter. That was fun, with the possums visiting all night and me waving my walking poles at them to keep them off my food. I think we came to an understanding sometime after midnight and they left me alone.
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