Day 64 - Otaki forks - Waikanai

The rain stayed as a companion throughout the night, but as morning came, the rain faded, and soon was left to only a light shower. I packed my gear up quickly, knowing that the rain could easily come back and made my way down the road to Pukeatua trail. The trail was marked around 6 hours, and I knew I had a good amount of climbing since the summit was pinned at over 800m. 

I figured out that this trail was the last rough, tough, muddy, jungle-like trail that I would be hiking in the north island, so I made good effort to smell the roses. The hike was harder than I was expecting, bringing my high up into the clouds again, and then making a steed decent back out of the other side. I did run into a father and son going for a weekend walk, but I was also quite concerned for their thinking when I noticed they had absolutely nothing with them, but like trail shoes. Not even water. I told them how long they had to go, hoping they would consider turning back at some point soon. 

I carried on and made it out the other end to the road. I now had around 15km of road walking before I would reach Waikanae. The insoles of my shoes were starting to slip and slide, and I could feel a few points on my feet that were feeling extremely uncomfortable with a slight burning. My original plan was to stay at a place called "River pa" located just outside of Waikanae, but when I couldn't find the place I decided to just continue on to the city. When I reached the city with no really plan on where I was going to stay I figured out that there was a Hostel, but it was still 12km away. A distance I figured I would aim for, but the reality of it was I didn't have the energy. While walking on a riverside trail through the city, the sun started to set. My feet were stinging and my legs where hardly carrying me. I spotted a hidden spot in the trees, and cut my losses and set up camp. I was asleep quite early, and awoken in the middle of the night to rain pouring down on my tent. I really hope this will have passed by morning.