Te Araroa Trail Dome Forest
We woke to pouring rain today. Matt made us some brekkie of eggs and toast and after leaving a koha ($$ donation) we got going at 8am. Thankfully the rain stopped just as we started walking. We walked 2kms on the road before starting the Dome Hill track through to the Dome Valley.
Mud
Today’s forest was hard going. As it had poured with rain last night it was especially muddy and slippery. I digress at this point to discuss mud types so far:
- Red/orange – generally clay, slimy & slippery, no footing is secure, takes you with it.
- Yellow – splashy & slippery, most likely to enter shoes
- Dark brown – squelchy not runny, makes a satisfying pop upon pulling out a stuck hiking pole
- Green – smelly & runny, also likely to enter shoes
- Grey/green – wet, sticky, you get sucked into it
- Estuary mud – black, stinky, horrible
Today’s forest was a mix of several types of the above, mostly slippery and soaking the shoes.
Combined with all the tree roots criss-crossing the path we had to watch every footing, balancing precariously on our poles and trying not to slip and slide our way up & down.
There were lots of ups, downs and overs – which we weren’t expecting.
Towards the end, after all the mud and climbing and a couple of falls, there was some reasonably frequent swearing, and even a comparison with the dreaded Ratea forest of Northland.
Eventually we got to the ‘Top of the Dome cafe where we each had a magnificent burger, cake and soft drinks, then it was only 10kms to go before reaching our bed for the night – the ‘Nanekoti Homestay‘.
Nanekoti was a lovely farmhouse with the added bonus of a little herd of goats!!
My accommodation for the night was a lovely little caravan for one 🙂