Day off! Didn’t take many photos today, a first for me! I’ve included a couple of goodies from the past week.

Due to crappy weather and needing a bit of a rest I decided to chill out for a day or so before meeting my Dad to mountain bike the next leg, the Timber Trail.

The day started with a ceramonious dumping of my first pair of socks which have been good to me for the first 1/3rd of this journey but it’s time for a new pair. Byeeeeee

I didn’t feel too bad about missing my first bit of the trail, 53km, as I’d just done an extra 66km in the Round the Mountain trip.

The trail notes advised staying away from this particular trail when it was wet , and boy, did the rain come down. Apparantly the river track is beautiful but really dangerous and my friend Marte hurt her ankle! It sidles the river so one slip and you’re in!

I’m grateful that the weather has come at a time where I can rest up, refuel and then look forward to the next few days before heading back to Auckland for xmas.

I got a ride back to Taumaranui and stayed the night there, after an enjoyable lunch of some Thai food, and stocking up on a couple of things at the supermarket, I headed for the holiday park.

The folks there are lovely, and met up with Myriam again, and met a couple of new faces.

Had a great sleep, and today will be off to the start of the Timber Trail, where I will camp and meet dad tommorrow morning.