29 Oct. Te Araroa 28
20% done
The crossing of the Okura River at low tide meant that we had plenty of time to walk 10km this morning.
Cold and windy as we waited for the tide to change and even a cup of tea and noodles didn’t make us warm.
An hour before the low tide we watch a jogger run from one side of the river to the other, it was a great distance away but somehow he got across. So we made ready and followed his foot prints until we lost them, I tried to cross until it was waist deep with sticky mud so I returned. This obviously wasn’t going to work with the only other option was to go upstream and find a more suitable crossing.
We were not the only ones that had that idea, with a sole hiker behind us.
From a distance we sore horses crossing and we headed for that point which turned out to be knee height and as we sat there drying our feet, other horses made the same crossing but some refused to cross and needed a lot of encouragement. I was surprised at the difficulties that many riders were having, trying to get across the river, i had always thought that horses loved water, maybe I’ve watched too many western. movies
We were off the track by a few kms and to get back on the “official” track that followed the coastline would take some time. The main road of Auckland were not very exciting but I guess it had to be done.
We made it to Takapuna Beach holiday Park which was only 3 hours from the centre of Auckland, but that was going to be done tomorrow.
But tonight was a celebration of achieving 20% of the trail so far, 600km mark and so we went out and had the best Pizza at a real Italian restaurant and enjoyed our achievement that night in the warmth of the cozy restaurant.