I spent most of the night contemplating whether I would be able to hike today. My knee was aching and every time I moved I was woken by another sore muscle or sunburned backs of legs – you know how much that hurts whey out are trying to sleep!

I woke at 6:10am, got up and spoke with Claudia by the water tap. She saw I was limping and offered some drugs for joints. I call them drugs as these pills were great.

As there were no water sources on the way to Utea, I had to carry and took 3.5 litres. A lot of extra weight. It was needed though as I only had 200ml when I arrived at Utea.

As soon as I left camp, at 7:33am I could feel my blisters. And a short while later – new ones forming. It was another sunny hot day, but I managed to complete the 30km hike to Utea Campsite. The last 5km was absolute torture, but once it was done, it was time to inspect the blisters!

Oh my gosh… so many… and two toenails that looked purple and had blistered around them. So much pain to walk on, so I had to pop them, put on antiseptic cream and air them in the sun.

Dinner was in a communal kitchen, and I had a hot shower and washed my clothes. It felt wonderful, despite the one curtain between me and the 8 or so German backpackers who would have got a frightening scene every time the wind blew.

Tania who manages/owns Utea offered me a smoothie, it was banana, blueberry, passionfruit and peaches. Despite being $10.00 – it was absolute heaven!

So here I am, laying on a double mattress in a room all to myself hoping my blisters stop aching and I get a goodnight rat for an early start and the 31km to Ahipara in the morning!

So, what have I learned today?

• Deal with your blisters when you can feel them forming!
• 30km on sand carrying 16kg is hard work
• Thinking about a cold can of coke with ice when you won’t be getting one, is just torturing yourself
• When you shower, don’t forget to clean the sand and sunscreen in your ears

Statistics for today;

• Distance: 30 km, 70/3,000km
• Breakfast – backcountry breakfast
• Lunch – cliff bar
• Dinner – backcountry spaghetti bolognese
• Snacks – jerky + cliff bar

Sorry for the lack of photos today – was just focussed on getting the 30km completed