Te Araroa Trail

Day 1 Cape Reinga – Twilight campsite 13km

Short walk today but changing terrain like I have never done before. Leaving the lighthouse we climbed along Bluff, spectacular views. Then down onto the beach including scaling a rock face to get around a point (tide wasn’t low enough) beautiful beach walk before heading into the sand dunes, tough on the legs but OK.

Then into what felt like a desert before a rock climb that could have been mistaken for a canyon somewhere. At the top were the wind whipped a mixture of stone and sand across my bare legs and face. Bolted over that point as fast as I could to a long walk through the teatree. Finishing the day with a 2km walk along a spectacular beach to reach a lovely campsite on top of a hill. Too much water in my rehydrated meal so pretty much had to drink it, but happy to be tucked up in my cool tent at 8.30pm.