The initial 20 minutes of this section was really nice. The Te Araroa departs the Loop Track about half way around and cuts across to Daltons Bridge via farm land. Stiles all the way (except one fence (look for the insulating piping over the electric fence near the dip. It's easy enough to cross)) and it's an easy walk.
After the bridge it's road walking all the way to Havelock.
A couple of kilometers from Daltons Bridge there is the Trout Hotel. No cooked food except in the evenings but there is a small range of options and anything you want to drink.
I stayed at the Blue Moon Backpackers. Geordie got me set up in a room with no-one else in it which was pretty cool. Met a couple of the locals. Brett Avison is an author of kids books and Tom talked about his days in the military. I'm really glad I don't have to cover the sor of distance he claimed they'd do in a day.
Brett also mentioned that I should write a book on the walk. I'm not sure about it myself. What would I write about that people would pay for?
Blue Moon have something that's got to be unique these days. They have a working VCR and a library of about 100 cassettes. I watched some very bad b-grade sci-fi from the 70s and Alien Vs Predator. A great end to the day.