November 15 Twilight camp - The Bluff 28km

Today I woke up bright and early and was on the trail for 7, plenty of time before the hot sun will take affect. The first 5 km was through forest on a quad track so easy and efficient walking. Then down 400m of stairs down to the infamous "90 Mile beach". It's actually 66 miles long but 90 miles sounded better I guess. 

4 hours later I was at the bluff. Nothing eventful happened today, just sand and more sand. 

The Bluff is a popular fishing spot so there were I think 7 cars here. The campsite was off the beach in a nice field with a water source flowing into an old rusted tub. 

Set up camp and made some dinner. I was there really early ahead of everyone so I just sat in the grass and read my book. 

Tonight was awful. It started pouring rain around 11pm and also super windy. My tarptent has a couple design flaws which are pretty evident in stormy weather. The water would run off the side of the tent like normal. But this tent has a mesh that connects to the bathtub flooring. The mesh part is connected to the tent area which is dripping but at a ninety degree angle. The wind would move the mesh so it was in line with the tent wall. So the rain would flow onto the mesh. Next gust would come up under the tent wall and push some water into the bathtub flooring. Anyways, bad night didn't get too wet. I had a rag in the tent for such occasion. 

28 km today took under 6 hours so pace is around 5km/hour. 

Tomorrow is a 30km walk to Hukatere Lodge. A nice warm bed is waiting