Day 24. Perfect Track, Mud and WTF?

32.5 km

Clevedon km 661 to Lower Mangatawhiri Campsite km 693.5

Shane made Lisa and I a great breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast. Plus the best Long Black coffee I have had. Shane taught us the secret to enjoying Vegemite. Lots of butter on toast and then Vegemite as thin as you can spread it. Delicious!

We walked out of town and onto a narrow track with lots of wet grass. So much for dry shoes. Soon we were on gravel track with switchbacks and stairs. So much easier. We took the 5 minute side trail to view Hunua Falls. It was worth it. 

We climbed several view less peaks. We took the side trail to view some kauri trees and found a bench to sit on for lunch. Perfect timing. We also got some great views of the 3 reservoirs we walked by. But of course there was plenty of slip and slide in the mud once the perfect track ended.

At km 687 where Repeater Rd ends the map, gps and TA trail markers did not match up at all. We only had 7km to go. A sign gave us two 4 hr options…. by track or road. We ended up going left and following the TA signs. Eventually that merged back to Manning Rd and then the map, gps and signs were in sync.

We finally got to the campsite we wanted and who was there? Brett, Alex and Helen. Big reunion. They had gotten confused at the same place we did and made the same choice. Nice to know I wasn’t going crazy back there.

This is a nice campsite with picnic tables, toilets and camping under trees.