Te Araroa Trail – Zero Day Taumarunui
I had a lovely quiet rest day in Taumarunui today, and met with Anouck, Anja and Markus to decide the next leg of the route over a long lunch.
I had originally planned to deviate from the trail and not walk the Tongariro crossing as I’ve done it plenty of times before, and don’t need to do it again carrying 14kgs. Instead I was going to walk the Round the Mountains track, but I was advised by DOC not to do it as there’s a bridge out, and they didn’t recommend that a solo tiny tramper do the river crossing her own.
So I’ll stick with the gang instead. We booked our Whanganui canoe journey with the lovely lady at the ISite in town. We start 4th Dec.. very exciting!
In the evening we chatted with lots of Te Araroa trail hikers in the campsite including Luzia and Jan, and Louis and Johann some French guys who I met on the Timber Trail. I enjoyed a nice dinner and couple of glasses of wine.
UPDATE: I hiked the Round the Mountain track the following year. It was amazing!! Click the links for Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3