I left early today since I wanted to push out of the Pureora forest today – around 38km and two hills to climb. After the irritation with the times on the doc signs I was again confident to be faster after yesterday. The sign said 19km and 10h to the next hut and from there about another 19km out of the forest…
When I got up I could see blue sky. The first time in quite a long time now. I started at 7.50h, so about one hour after sunrise since Inwas still feeling uncomfortable with all the hunters in the area. Also my orange rain cover could potentially look like a deer fur in the dark. The trail continued in the same nice quality from yesterday. Beautiful scenery now with the sunlight shining through the canopy.
The forest again looked mystical and reminded a lot on the Ants in Lord of the rings. I just had to take may shots…
Also a lot of wood pigeons were in the forest.
On top of Mt. Weraroa – which was the first sunny spot today – I met a Kiwi couple, Belinda and Tony. I was so happy to meet somebody and we couldn’t stop chatting. We probably spent an hour just exchanging the latest trail Infos and everything else which seemed interesting and important. They also invited me over in case I would make it down to Paraparaumu again. So we exchanged numbers and went on. My mood was on a high after this encounter!
With the sun getting lower the play of light in the trees became intense again.
I made it to the Bog Inn Hut in five hours as expected and tackled the next 19km from there. Fortunately the trail was combined with be cycle trail after a while which made it easier to progress. A little detour on Mount Pureora was a highlight! Perfect weather and amazing views!
And I enjoyed the sun for a while.
After coming down from the peak again I still had 11km to go and exactly 52 minutes until sunset. So I started pushing it and got faster and faster – from 12 minutes/km to partly 8min/km. And I even had time for photo breaks.
But also I couldn’t postpone the sunset so the last 40 minutes were dark again. But ok, since the cycle trail was ok to follow even in the dark. I was still happy to get out of the forest and the end.
Scary, when you look where I am already.
Pitched my tent, ate and went into the tent to read through some of my birthday messages which I was able to download on Mt. Pureora. Thank you so much! Especially being alone out here made me feel quite touched and home…
