Day 1 Twilight Beach

Brooke and I awoke early to make the 1 hour drive to Cape Reinga where I start my journey. As we parked at Cape Reinga the weather took a quick change and decided to start raining. Fairly harsh. Brooke gave me a look of "We can turn around if you want", but we both knew that this was going to happen. Soon after the rain stopped and we walked down to the lighthouse, took a breathe in of new Zealand's most spiritual place, and said our farewells. It was a long goodbye, but by 9:30am I was offically on the Te Araroa trail.

I marked my destination for twilight beach, 12 km from Cape Reinga. I came around the first minor milestone at Te Werahi beach to see that I'm late on the tide. The rocks that I am supposed to scramble over on the beach were getting hit with some seriously strong waves. Not only was it dangerous, but I didn't plan on walking the rest of the day with wet feet. I ended up finding a high tide path, which eventually turned into nothing since nobody had walked here in a while. After bushwhacking through the higher hills I eventually made it back to the beach and a section that gave me no choice but to walk through the waves and hope for the best. I soon had water logged boots.

It was a harder day than I hoped for, but I arrived at twilight beach a little before 3 giving a large amount of time to dry my gear, make some dinner, and get ready for very peaceful sleep with the Tasman sea

Tomorrow I aim for the bluff, and the start of the Ninety Mile beach. Looks like there's some rain for tomorrow morning and possibly afternoon thunderstorms. I don't want to even think about setting up camp in the rain on day 2.

I awoke at midnight to my tent illuminated by the moons twilight. Only fitting to experience this on twilight beach. But then I heard a noise. I did not need a light to see the thieving possum rummaging through my bag. I yelped at him and gave him a good fright. I brought my gear from my vestibule to inside my tent and slowly drifted back into sleep.