Whananaki to ngunguru

No day off, it wasn't raining as I'd hoped. I left Whananaki on this 395m handmade wooden footbridge, built by locals to save the schoolteacher from having to row his pupils to the school every day.

Speaking of school, I met a chatty little boy and later his mother told me he has to do announcements at assembly each day. His reading skill has massively increased as a result. "Thank you school, oh thank you school" she said.

Te Araroa follows the coast south for a while, inland of lovely bays like this one. 

I stopped at Matapouri Store to eat a tomato, a banana, and a strawberry ice-cream. I read the paper, wrote a postcard, and adored being inactive.

Then off to Ngunguru which meant a forest hike. I was expecting rain showers and was happy to be under trees when the first one arrived. It was dry again when I walked past Tane Moana... 

... an enormous kauri. 

And then the Heavens opened, viz was down to 50m, and it was a wet slog to Ngunguru ("nung-guru"). First real rain so far. 

I needed to cross the Ngunguru River, so asked for a ride and a bed from James who has cabins and composting loos on the opposite bank. He ferried me over in his tinny but I was keeping my phone dry so you just have to imagine a wall of rain, a wee aluminium boat, two life-jacketed figures and mosquitos for afters.