34km Day : 379km Total

At 7:30am I caught a ride out to the spot I left the trail at the intersection of Ngunguru & Ngunguru-Ford Roads.

It started with a short road walk, then onto a forestry trail.  This included two stream crossings, one almost knee deep and the other just above the ankles.

Then it was back to the roads, where I came across Bobby and Margaret, an American father an daughter hiking duo I first met in Kerikeri.  Margaret gave me the name and number of someone at McKenzie Bay than can help with a place to stay and a boat ride across the harbour if I have trouble finding a ride.  Before long I reached the town of Pataua, which is divided into North and South by a river with only a footbridge connecting them.

Two kilometres later I was at the Taiharuru Estuary.  When planning this part of the hike, for some reason I thought I would would be wading for 3km in waist deep water.  It turned out to be a lot less water and a lot more mud than I expected.  Since I was crossing at low tide it was mostly mud flats with a few shallow (knee deep) streams to cross.  The tricky part of this crossing is determining where to make the crossing.  The best way is to follow the west bank for a couple of kilometers until you see about 5 or 6 small white posts that make a line that crosses the estuary.  When you see these look to the right of them.  You will see a lone pine tree and a short (~3m) white-clay cliff.  Just to the right of these is where the trail resumes up the bank and onto a paddock.  I recommend picking up an extra litre of water when crossing one of the streams.  You will need this to clean the mud off of your shoes and legs after the crossing.  You won’t have any other way to clean it off for a while.  The photo below is looking back across the estuary after the crossing.

The next leg of the day’s hike was up to the top of Mount Kauri.  This was the only serious exertion of the day, but it was a pretty good workout to walk to the top, mostly on gravel roads and a nice section of trail.  The views were awesome.

Camping in the dunes of Ocean Beach tonight.