30km Day : 171 Total
This morning I had to decide between a low mileage or high mileage day, because there are few options for putting up a tent between the two forests.  And I had not progressed as far yesterday as I had hoped, so I still had 12km of the hills and mud of Raetea to slog through.  So my options were to walk 12km to the edge of Raetea forest or to walk 30km to the edge of Omahuta forest. I estimated I’d have a walking speed of 2km/hr in Raetea and 5km/hr on the roads in between.  Considering breaks, etc, I estimated I could walk the 30km in 12 hours.  Putting me in Omahuta around 7:30pm. A long, hard day but doable, and I really wanted to get out of the mud of Raetea.
An hour into the day’s walk I reached Raetea summit.  The views were amazing and made the walk through all of that mud totally worth it.  I emerged from the forest at 2:30, an hour later than estimated.  Now I was on a race against time to make it to Omahuta before dark.  First stopping at a stream to top off with water and to clean off the worst of the mud (which was already considered in my time estimates).  Then it was a power-walk to Mangamuta Bridge, arriving at the shoppette at 4:30pm to find a sign that they closed at 3pm on Sundays (as if I knew today was Sunday).  But the family that runs the store was still inside cleaning up and allowed me in with amazing kindness, to pick a few choice items off the shelves.  The cafe was closed as well, but I wouldn’t have had the time for it anyway.  Then back on the road to continue my walk in a race against the setting sun.  I arrived exhausted at the edge of the forest at 8:30 just as it was getting dark,  and by the time I found a suitable spot and put up my tent it was completely dark, using my headlamp to finishing setting up my tent.