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Post Walk Reflections

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Our TA experience took us 116 days with 10 rest days. For a number of reasons this was spread over 10 months (the first 93 days December 2021 - March 2022 and the last 23 days in October 2022). Whilst we both would have liked to have done it all in one go with no interruptions, life (and my injury) got in the way. We were very lucky that we are based in New Zealand so stopping and starting again was a lot easier than for our international visitors. It also did not take long to get "back in the groove" once we did start walking again.  Our last leg (Auckland to Cape Reinga) took us 23 days. We stretched this out a bit with a few very short days but we were in no rush to finish. I was very relieved to have no pain and no niggles on this stretch and I honestly would have been happy to just keep going and going.  All that said, it was amazing to finish and having Anne and Chris meet us at the end was really special. On the drive back home,  Anne and Chris asked a few really good
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Northland: 90 Mile Beach to Cape Reinga

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 Day 20: Ahipara to Hukatere (33km / 6hrs 45 mins)  So this is it! We are now on THE beach! The beach of sorrow for many (have you seen the photos of their blisters?). The beach to start and finish the TA for a few (we have heard of people who hate it so much they just stop and go home once off the beach). And the beach to officially finish our traverse of the length of New Zealand on the Te Araroa trail!!  OK, OK I am getting slightly ahead of myself here.   I will start today again.  We decided we would start walking about 30 minutes after high tide which was due at around 11am. This gave us another very leisurely start to the day and an opportunity to go back to the cafe where we had had lunch yesterday for breakfast. It was a beautiful morning, slightly overcast but not windy which bode well for good walking conditions.   After breakfast we sat in the holiday park reception area/games room until it was time to go. We were both incredibly excited to start this big leg of our trip. A
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