24 Km total 160
11h total 44h
First jungle or forest tramping track of the TA after a good breakfast and a smooth start things get but like really muddy. And also get more sense of the tramping way of hike. There is basically no path, just markers on the trees that you follow. No trail means getting up on roots, jumping in big patches of mud ( like on the west coast trail but without the boardwalks ). You are walking basically at less than 2kmh and because you have 18 kilometers to complete you better keep going at it. After a while my feet were so muddy that I kept slipping in my sandals so that I had to put my socks on to have a better grip Reaching the Raetea forest summit took me four hours and then the kilometers markers were really slow to appear. Finally around 16h30 we saw the sky again. The weather was great and it was nice being out of the forest.
After getting some rest and washing my feets at the river the 4 of our group went on a few kilometers until Mangamuka Bridge where I asked a local to pitch on his lawn. Nice but long day.
