Te Araroa Trail Waipu to Mangawhai ** TA Highlight**
We started the day with bacon and eggs then Mary dropped us to the start of the Lang’s View track stretch of Te Araroa trail. Markus had a rest day due to injury, so we left the majority of our pack items with him (slackpackers!) and just the ladies began the walk.
Today’s trail gave us some variety again, starting with forests and with some great views over yesterday’s beach walk. This turned into gravel track, road, fields, and eventually brought us to the Mangawhai Heads coastal walkway.
We’ve had a few of these moments this week, but this really was the best views of the trail so far. A beautiful clifftop walk with islands out to sea and miles of pristine beach to the south. Kiwis if you haven’t been up here, schedule in a weekend to do it one day!
Mangawhai Heads Village
We walked into Mangawhai Heads village and stopped for a protein shake and some hot chips at Dizzy Lizzy’s which I would highly recommend if anyone’s ever in the area. A final 6km road walk to the Riverside campsite ended the day at 5.30pm.
We would have loved to have checked out the iconic Mangawhai Tavern but we literally couldn’t walk another step! It’s funny how no matter the distance – be it 20, 25 or 30kms (i.e that day’s designated mileage) that after that distance, your feet just stop working, and you cannot actually walk any more.
Early dinner and bed was the final order of the day.