Day 81: Mangatewhiri Forest and Hunua Ranges - a long and painful day

Warren dropped me of at the end of Lyons Rd again in the morning at around 7 and off I went to do the next 32km. Fortunately I left big parts of my gear behind since Warren was going to pick me up again in the evening. The day started out mystical…

The trail was nice but a little bit overgrown at the beginning. But I have seen worse so far.

Well, the walk was unspectacular. A lot of up and down and not many views in the bush. But my feet turned up with another problem now. Since I have been taking weight of my injured left ankle for the last seven days and compensating with my right foot I now do have a swelling and inflammation of my right foot. I could feel it the last two days already but this morning it was really bad. So bad that I actually had to use my left foot to relieve the right one. Using an injured one to compensate for an even worse injured one doesn’t seem like a good idea in general…
Also the stairs which followed after the first part were not really a relieve.

I met an elderly guy, Steve from Auckland, in the bush and we walked together for a few hours which was nice to distract me from my pain. But I was also slower than planned. I only reached Waiora Dam at 3.30h and still had 10km to go – in the bush and over hilly terrain. The sign said 4.5h.

I stared walking as fast as possible since I didn’t want to walk in the dark in the bush. And of course I forgot to take my head torch… Painful two hours for my feet. Even the Ibuprofen did not really help. So I could not enjoy a beautiful sunset which sometimes glimpsed through the trees.

Made it to the Hunua Falls just after sunset and was happy to be out.

Warren and Ella picked me up and we spend another evening with good food and conversations. I am really glad I have a place to stay tonight. I was completely exhausted and also in pain. I have the feeling I will have to take a break tomorrow if I don’t want to seriously break something and take me off the trail for weeks…ign=”middle” />