Tag	Ziel	km	h	gkm
1	Cape Reinga – Twilight Camp	12	3
2	The Bluff	27	6,5	39
3	Hukatera Lodge	29	7,5	68
4	Ahipara	34	8	102

Nine hundred miles seems to be an exaggeration due to a measurement error. As I understand it, horses, or rather the endurance of them, were used in the past to measure distances. An average horse probably made it to 30 miles per day. The one used to measure this beach in the north of New Zealand did more like 30 km a day.

The trail notes do emphasize that you should watch out for the tides for the first 100 kilometers along the beach, however I would only partially subscribe to that, the first 12 KM can be a bit problematic, but even at high tide it was hardly a problem to get through. The remaining kilometers are completely unproblematic. However, I have not yet completely solved the puzzle, because the water seemed actually have to come higher from time to time.

Since everybody starts at the same place and everybody (has to) camp at about the same places, we find ourselves in a colorful group in the afternoon to exchange the different experiences. As always, there are of course many Germans on the road. Otherwise we are not very colorful, three Americans, one Aussie and one Kiwi.

The introduction to Te Araroa is not necessarily the most scenic, but definitely good to break in the feet or as it happened to me, again a swollen ankle. It is flat and you always know exactly where to go, always along the water. Few opportunities to get lost, even if you would put it on.

Because it is not very diversified, one still has one’s own mind to escape boredom. And besides, there are definitely some curiosities to admire, e.g. the many jellyfish stranded all along the way, or the various species of birds that I can’t place. Also interesting were the seagulls that try to crack shells by dropping them from the air onto the hardened sand.

There is plenty of time to get your fill of the little things. For example, the many beautiful patterns that the wind creates in the sand

The longer you walk along the beach in the pouring rain, the more you feel your feet just screaming to finally arrive, the more the cloud cover turns against you, the more you want this endless beach we’ve been walking along for 4 days to just end, the more you long for some comfort and someone to cook for you. Later, it turns out that even the latter will be denied us.

The waves push incessantly towards the shore and thus underline the scenery of our misery with a constant roar. The wind is barely noticeable and yet omnipresent.

How good it feels to have arrived at the long-awaited destination, when the soap from the warm shower lathers up and creeps down the battered body, and in the bliss of warmth over the miles of sand left behind, you realize what you have actually accomplished in the last four days. A shower as a symbol of temporary relief before we toast the next thirtieth as companions.

Except for my swollen foot, I’m feeling great. I hope a rest day, like the one in Leon at the beginning of the year, will also make me forget this little thing

People

On the way we met Tim, who ran 60 km in only one and a half hours more than me. I had done 30 km in 6.5 hours. Really impressive what some people can do. He will probably become a myth if he keeps up his 50 km daily average all the way down to Bluff.

Steve provides another interesting story of someone who set out on the trip with little preparation. He was the last to arrive at the campground the first night, only to find out his tent was broken. Too late to get to a road, then hitchhike to the next town. To everyone’s surprise, the next morning there was a tent we didn’t know was next to ours. Steve found it hidden under a bench, apparently left behind by someone.