An early start took me through farmland, then on an old track through the forest from Honikiwi Rd to Mahoe Rd. Shoulder high ferns to brush past - fine except for where a farm bike had been through and coated them with (now) dried mud. Farm land, a minor road, and then into forest again at the Oamaru Reserve.
This is a new track (because of access issues for the first half of the old one), well marked, but fairly slow going as it was a bit uneven, but made steady progress up and down through the forest, then down and up a long fenceline into a valley - then up and down again, and up some more - and the sun had come out too, so quite hot. On the next up section the track initially pointed through what looked like thick scrub, but the alternative I tried was worse, so after a rough hill climb, I rejoined the real track.
This then dived off into trees, with pleasant walking, and at some point changing from the new track into the original track which looked to be on an old forest road. At this point the markers became a lot less frequent, leading to a wrong turning, before back tracking and being more vigilant the second time. This wound its way down through the forest to follow a stream. My track map had a side turning marked part way along, so followed one when I found it, but that was wrong - so back tracked again.
And then there was a wide shallow river to cross (shallow thanks to dry weather - you don't go this way after heavy rain) - my feet really appreciating cooling down at this point. The real track actually follows the forest road up and down all the way down to near Waitomo - pleasant enough, but at this point I was quite tired.
The last section was to take a short track down the hill to join the Waitomo Walkway, but as warned by the neighbour, the brambles were out in force, and although my walking pole could deal to some of them, it was time to give up on them and head down the road to Waitomo village.
My hardest and longest day of Te Araroa so far - quite long sections of rougher track, and my track maps having some significant variations from where the new and original track actually went - errors of navigation really cost time and energy. Great country though - forest, hills, views, streams - I love it (pic).
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