19/01/2005 I made my way back towards the Orongo Bay Holiday Park where I had finished walking last time. On the Opua vehicle ferry I met a Nelson family who offered me a lift as far as my turnoff. Given that I had walked that section last time I accepted with a clear conscience. It did mean that I had a couple of hours of daylight left however, so I decided to start walking this evening. I walked for just over 3 hours and covered about 14kms with about 10km of that on tar sealed roads with rough chip seal. I really do hate the road walking sections but at least I know that I don?t need to do it tomorrow. I have set up camp for the night on the track leading to a twin bole Kauri. I am not sure where it is exactly as it is dark in the forest at 10.00pm. I am looking forward to seeing it in the morning though. My feet seen to have tolerated this first session well, tomorrow is mainly on a track through Russell Forest so it will be a bit easier on the soles than the road. There is a morepork calling near to me which is very pleasant. On the way here I filled my water bladder at a creek at about 150m altitude and found fresh water crays there. I always assumed they lived lower down. Turns out that I slept only a few metres from this leviathan