This will be a character building day,
With a long, almost 28km of walking ahead, including three summits… it was going to be a testing day. I am so glad I kept that Trail Magic Coca Cola from yesterday, it will come in handy today.
Leaving Martin’s Hut behind, it was time to “lean into” getting down and dirty. The mud was terrible and relentless with me being almost waist deep in one of the pools. F-un with a capital F as I always say. Made it to the first summit, clouds and rain, no sign of Bluff where I started, more than a 100km away.
Time to really dig deep, making it to the third summit of the day took a real effort.
Finally the sun showed up right before I left the last bit of forest. Adjust my phone settings in an attempt to get a true image of what it looked like.
This place is really breathtakingly beautiful… if you just put the effort in to come here, and take a little time to admire it.
I know I am only a week into my adventure, but I get the sense that I will be getting something different out of the Te Araroa than I expected. I am not sure what it is or what it looks like yet, but time will tell. I reaffirmed a couple of things about myself today. I still have what it takes, endurance, knuckle down and get it done mentality. I lost so much self confidence not having my own business, to a point that I am not sure I will be able to manage it ever again… I was wrong.
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46.0753 – 167.8521
11 February 2024
FP-31