Te Araroa Trail Mercer to Rangiriri
I had an early start this morning. I set off on the trail at 7am from Mercer. The first trail was the Whangamarino Redoubt track, then a wetlands track. After the wetlands there was a nasty 2k stretch adjacent to SH1.
Finally, I got to the 17kms of trail next to the Waikato river.
Along the Waikato River
Some of the trail was easy walking on the stopbank with lovely scenery. Some was not so great – bashing through gorse, crawling under very low trees, and at one point clinging to the river bank where the path had collapsed into the river.
This section isn’t to be taken lightly – today the river was at pretty low flow, but the height of driftwood over the banks indicated how high it had been this winter.
At around midday some storms came over and loud thunder went off around me for about 30 minutes. I got caught in the hailstorm then found a barn to shelter in.
Cathy’s Pies – Have one.. or two
I managed to get to Rangiriri for a delicious home made pie from Cathy’s . It was the best pie of the trail by far… Mince & cheese flavour of course! An American couple offered me a left over apple pie, so I gratefully ate that too 🙂
In the afternoon I got my tent up in the back field before more storms set in.
I had a little snooze and woke at 5pm to be joined by Judith (TA Facebook page administrator). We chatted the evening away & I darned/repaired the first hole in my first pair of trainers. Early bed… Chilly night!
