Sunday, June 24, 2012

Te Araroa Trail Gear List

Here is what we took with us and what we wore and the weight in grams.

PACK GEAR Rob  Deb
Sleeping bag 845 845 Can be zipped together into a shared double bag for warmth
Silk liner 110 110 Important for sleeping bag hygiene and warmth 
Sleeping bag dry bag 35 35 Replaces stuff bag and plastic bag. UltraSil
Sleeping mat 320 320 Could be replaced with foam mat to reduce weight
Plastic bags 20 20 For food, etc
Pack 1265 1200 Osprey Exos 58
Pack liner dry bag 110 110 UltraSil
Lid pocket dry bag 35 35 UltraSil
Tent 1170 Tarptent: Cloudburst 2
Billy 210 160 Two billies
Tea towel 30 2 thick Chux cloths
Scrub pad 5
Stove 90 MSR titanium
Gas cylinder 370 370 We get up to 40 boils from each. Weight empty = 130gm
Wind shield 25 Aluminium foil
Emergency/first aid kit 165 210
Sunscreen, dimp 70 150
Matches, candle 15 For emergency firelighting
Plates x2 120 Aluminium
Spoons x2 20 Plastic: (plastic "Sporks" both broke)
Mugs x2 95 Plastic
Leatherman mini 55 Incl pliers, blade, screwdrivers, tin opener
Knife 15
Clothes dry bag 40 40 UltraSil
Towel 90 90 Polyprop
Parka 695 660 Oringi Milford (un-needed material cut off; heavy but effective
  for NZ conditions)
Overtrousers 215 180
Balaclava 50 50 Polyprop
Long johns 135 110
Fleece jacket 475 450
Fleece long-sleeved top 280 275
Tights 100 Lycra
Polyprop skivvy/vest 165 110
T shirt 150 110 Merino - Mainly In bed (unless cold when used as extra layer)
Silk vest 90 In bed 
Socks hut 50 30 Merino
Spare walking socks 50 40
Gloves 35 30
Underpants 50 30 One spare each
Bra 50 Spare
Handkerchief 15 15
Hut shoes 480 445 Rob- Crocs; Debby- sandals 
Toilet paper 80 80
Torch 135 Debby uses solar cap with LED light
Cord and clothes pegs 30
Camera drybag 35 UltraSil
Cellphone 100
Charger 55
Radio 110
PLB 175
GPS 210
Batteries (AA x 4) 95
Compass 25
Maps 30
Track papers 100
Camera 230
Charger 90
Notebook & pen 75
Bank security key 15
Money cards/money 30 30
Hut/YHA passes 20 20
Book 225 230
Spectacles 85 (incl case 45g) Prescription lenses -double as sunglases
Reading glasses 20 30
Toothbrush, soap etc 70 85
Water bottles 95 95 2 each; one empty unless needed
Lip salve 5 5
Leki pole 315 250 Not needed in North Island; essential South Island
TOTAL 9495 8425
Food Rob 4600 3000 For about 6 days
Water 1000 1000
Total 5600 4000
GRAND TOTAL 15095 12425
GEAR WORN
Shoes - Salomans 730 540 Techamphibians, light and dry out quickly.
Socks medium 55 40
Zip-offs pants 275 255 Used as shorts unless in town
Underpants 50 30
Bra 50
Sun hat 70
Solar cap 135 "2C Solar Light CapSun" sun hat with solar panel and 2 LEDs
Long-sleeved shirt 230 215 Polyester
Handkerchief 15 15
Bandana 30 For round neck or as neck shade tucked under hat.
TOTAL 1425 1310

Some Tips for Trail Walkers

A book has recently been published called "A walking guide to New Zealand's long trail Te Araroa" by Geoff Chapple. If you can get hold of a copy you would find it useful for background reading - it's a bit heavy for actually carrying on the trail though. It has plenty of detail on most of the tracks, photos, maps etc. I compiled notes from the Te Araroa website, but there is work being done now on trail guides which will contain all the information you need.

 Our philosophy is to travel as lightweight as possible without compromising safety. In NZ weather is always unpredictable and you must be prepared for cold and wet conditions, as well as very hot and dry.

 We have a very lightweight tarptent, lightweight packs and sleeping bags, and carry minimal clothing - but excellent waterproof jackets and fleece gear including balaclavas and gloves. We also carry cellphone, gps and personal locator beacon, compass, maps and first aid kit including gel blister plasters. We carry a tiny little fold-up burner and use gas canisters and yes, you will need to have some means of cooking as there are often no facilities whatsoever along the way. DOC huts mostly do not supply gas, some have wood-burners. (See our detailed gear list).

 In most places you can find somewhere to put up a tent, but always ask if it is on private property. Bear in mind your safety too - we don't have harmful creatures but we do have some unsavoury characters out there.

We dehydrate most of our meals and send food parcels to various points along the way – many youth hostels and motor camps are happy to hold parcels. Other trail users have managed without using food parcels and found it reasonably easy to resupply along the way. Usually, you need to carry 5-7 days of food with 1 section in the South Island where you need to carry 9 days (The Richmond Alpine Route). The trail tends to go to a resupply point every 5 days or so - some of these are small towns with a lack of variety!

Our advice is to do some long distance walks to get in training - about 20-25km. This is just to get your feet used to doing long distances day after day - they really suffer. We wear lightweight running shoes but that is a personal choice - some tracks are very rough and many are muddy, but on the roads heavy boots are a killer.

I am 59 and Rob is 69. We have both done a reasonable amount of tramping here and overseas; Rob has tramped quite extensively in New Zealand. We found the trail challenging in parts, especially sections of the South Island. There are some huge climbs and descents, some quite demanding tracks, and many river crossings.

Many other people will be happy to give you help/advice - the Te Araroa website is wonderful, there is a Te Araroa Facebook group and a Te Araroa Google group which are both useful ways to get in touch, as well as many trail stories and blogs.

 We hope this is a little help with your planning – walking the Te Araroa Trail is a totally amazing and rewarding experience - best of luck!!

Friday, March 16, 2012

Lands End

We’ve been told lots of trail walkers start out early each morning, but we‘re a bit lazy - today was one of our records at 7.35 am. Rob has a lot of trouble getting me moving in the morning, but the thought of having to cross the Waimatuku Stream before it got dodgy at high tide was motivation enough this day.





We walked along Oreti Beach towards the pink sunrise on good firm sand and an ever-changing beachscape. Seaweed, gemstones, birds, sand patterns and the sound of the breakers kept us interested for the whole seventeen kilometres, despite a smattering of rain. It was a still day and pleasant going along this almost deserted beach to our exit– here there were many people walking dogs and beach combing.
We enjoyed the 7 km walk up Dunn’s Road passing venues for every type of sport you can think of, then past flash new houses and eventually crossing an estuary where we saw beautiful spoonbills, white herons and dozens of grey herons. By this time it was raining heavily so we were glad to reach Invercargill and dry out in a backpackers.


We had a brilliant idea – we booked two nights in Invercargill so that we could do our final day to Bluff with light backpacks and hitch a ride back. We came to have some misgivings about this decision as it was a Saturday night and the place was noisy with young revellers. Even worse was the dit-dit-dit-dit-dit-dit of the pedestrian crossing outside our window which dit-ditted every twenty-eight seconds all night long. Also, why is it that hostels insist on having winter-weight duvets on their beds in summer? We stewed with it on and froze with it off. Sigh.


So, our last day dawned and what we saw out the window did not fill us with joy. It was raining - hard. And when we glumly set out we discovered there was a cold head wind as well. This wasn’t how it was all supposed to end.
The track around the estuary provided a bit of shelter and a sighting of fernbirds, but then it was out on to the totally exposed State Highway 1 for twenty-one kilometres of miserable cold wet walking. There was even treacherous talk of giving it away or hitching a ride Рbut we stuck it out, putting on gloves, balaclavas and waterproof pants to help ward off hypothermia. When we saw the entrance to the Foveaux Walkway Rob announced there was absolutely no way he was going around to the windward side of Bluff Head in a southerly on a track where people have died of exposure, but if I wanted to do it then I could go alone. Hurrumph. Sense prevailed, we continued along the road and soon arrived in bleak old Bluff with its dingy buildings. Huddling in the doorway of an abandoned shop eating our sandwiches we felt like a couple of tramps but we soon decamped to a caf̩ and warmed ourselves up with a big cup of hot chocolate before venturing forth for the last couple of kilometres Рand the rain had stopped, hooray.

Suddenly, there we were at Stirling Point – great excitement – and there was the famous sign we’d been aiming for all these weeks, with a dozen tourists clustered around it taking photos. We felt we had superior rights of course, but patiently waited our turn for a photo.



It was all over. We gave each other a big hug, a tear sprang to my eye, we had conquered the beast and felt like heroes for a few moments. But now we must turn north, return home and resume normal life. We about faced and stuck out our thumbs.

Our last trail angels were an English couple, Peter and Annette, who had seen us walking in the rain to the signpost and admired our spirit. So when they saw us hitching back they kindly offered a ride all the way back to Invercargill.
And that was that. Cape Reinga to Bluff: 3156 kilometres. We’d actually done it.

Notes:

Day 70: Riverton to Invercargill YHA. 28.5 km
Day 71: Invercargill to Bluff. 29 km

Postscript.
When you get on the Bluebridge Ferry as a foot passenger you walk in on the lower vehicle deck and then have to climb about 6 flights of very steep stairs. As we approached them, a stewardess came over and asked if we needed any help with the stairs. I mumbled a polite response and we laughed all the way to the top. If only she knew!


Two jobs remain for us:  to write concluding remarks about our overall experiences and to provide a set of notes to assist other people planning to walk the Long Pathway.
Finally, thank you to all our wonderful trail angels and to those who helped behind the scenes or who took an interest in our adventure, and to our fellow trail walkers, where-ever you are.

And for those who are interested, here is a link to a selection of our photos:
https://picasaweb.google.com/100535446401199071668/TeAraroaTrailSouthIsland111211312#

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Tackling the Takitimus

Rob gathered mushrooms from the paddocks along the road up to Princhester Hut - they made a nice addition to the dehyd. We also scored fresh fruit from a couple of hunters who dropped in to say hello. We found a pack of cards in the hut and Rob thrashed me 11-3 at Follow Suit. I hate playing cards with an expert bridge player.

Open tussock country, Takitimus
We were a bit worried by the adverse comments in the hut book about the track ahead - variously described as long, boggy and brutal. What were we letting ourselves in for? It was cold and wet when we set off, initially on reasonable track but at the first patch of tussock we floundered around looking for the trail markers. A lucky bit of guess work found us back on track and we went up and down through a varied landscape of bush, tussock and rocky outcrops. It was tough and rugged, enjoyable but not brutal. We followed animal tracks to avoid the worst of the bog, and finally arrived at Aparima Hut to find it surrounded by tents. They belonged to a group of Southland Polytech students on an environmental course who had kindly left bunks available for the likes of us. We soon made friends, and Curtis offered to carry out our rubbish, Ross offered us a bed in Invercargill, and Derek had his photo taken with us as he thought we oldies were "inspirational".


Next day we ploughed through wet tall tussock (over Rob's head; I couldn't see a thing as I was completely dwarfed), and then walked through primordial beech forest, dark, silent and remote. We had to be vigilant to stay on track as there were confusing animal trails that were better used than the marked trail - the trail here is new and has only been used by a handful of people so far. Crossing a little stream we nearly died of fright. With a mighty grunt and snort a huge pig came hurtling past me and towards Rob - I thought it was going to charge Rob but it ran off down the track probably as frightened as us. Whew. The final challenge was a careful crossing of the quite boisterous Wairaki River before reaching Lower Wairaki Hut. That night Rob cooked up turnips he'd nicked from the edge of a paddock on Princhester Road - delicious. You can see how obsessed we are with food, can't you?


Telford Tops
A massive but enjoyable day followed, up through forest and on to the beautiful Telford Tops. It was a really exciting moment when we saw the Southern Ocean and our destination, Bluff, in the distance. Wow, we were getting close - but what a lot of forest there was in the distance down below to get through over the next few days. We descended in just 4 hours (track time 8 hours!!)to our planned campsite for the night, Telford Burn, to find a DOC toilet plonked in the middle of a paddock full of cow pats, not a tree or other redeeming feature in sight. So, blow this for a joke, we kept going.

Linton Station
The pressure was on though - the next track was through Linton Station and had to be done in daylight, no camping allowed. We were practically running - except Rob kept stopping to pick mushrooms and ended with a good haul. We still got out by 6.00 pm and Monica and David from Taylor's Lodge in Ohai provided transport, accommodation, a delicious dinner and a lunch for a very reasonable price, and we had a gorgeous room in their old pub. Rob cooked up and shared his mushrooms for breakfast next morning.


Then it was up through farm paddocks on to the Twin Law Peaks, spotting two falcons on the way, and through the newly opened Woodlaw Track. I felt like an early explorer leading on the indistinct trail. On to the Island Bush Track through forestry, gorse slash and a farm to emerge on to the Tuatapere Road and culture shock with fast trucks whizzing past us. And there we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere, no place to camp, no water, rain threatening. We were rescued by the kindness of strangers. Jesse offered us water and a place to camp, but then Chris arrived on the scene and took us to her lovely home and gave us a delightful room for the night - with ensuite no less. Then she cooked us Tuatapere sausages and fresh veges from her garden for dinner, served us great wine and topped all that with brandy snaps. Southern hospitality has been outstanding.


After an hour and a half of walking next morning, at the end of Merrivale Road we gloomily read a DOC sign indicating that Martin's Hut was still 9 hours away. Rob set off at speed with me panting along behind him, trying to admire the goblin forest on the way to Bald Hill. From there it was on to the twisting, turning Longwoods Forest Track and another climb - then another up to the Longwood Ridge where we battled our way through tussock and bog. We were rewarded with wonderful views, but the descent to the hut was down a boggy, steep, gnarly track requiring great care and by now we were very tired. We arrived at the hut  to find that the only source of water was a distant creek.

The hut - our very last DOC hut on the trail - was really old, with only one operational sacking bunk and many gaps in the floor boards and walls. We made ourselves "comfortable" on the floor and listened to the moreporks as we tossed and turned all night.


A wonderful and longed for sunny day greeted us, but we found ourselves stuck in gloomy forest on the endless Ports Water Race track. It twisted and turned and drove us bananas, never getting anywhere, and with some truly nasty little bits, including old, rotting narrow log bridges crossing deep gullies and streams - these needed care and balance. To add to our misery, we missed the "small but obvious" wooden bridge right at the start of the track, and walked for half an hour down the wrong track. Then I did a spectacular face plant tripping over a tree root, shortly after my left leg plunged into a hole when a tree root broke underneath me and then I burst into tears when faced with 2 narrow, rounded logs over a huge chasm which Rob had just managed to cross by virtue of his long legs.


In short, after all we had been through over the weeks on the Trail, this track more than any other got to us. When Rob spotted an exit, we gleefully got out even though it involved crossing private land. Embarassingly, walking out down a stock race a whole herd of freshly milked cows advanced on us! We rolled under two electric fences, decided to find the farmer to apologise - who was as sweet as pie and even jumped down from his tractor and shook our hands and congratulated us when he found out we were about to complete the Trail.


So we made it to Colac Bay, where we spent a comfortable night at the Tavern before a truly enjoyable walk today along the beautiful Colac Bay beach and then the road margin into picturesque Riverton. We sat around in the sunshine generally relaxing before our last two long days. Nearly there!!




Notes:

Day 62: Half day rest day then SH 94 to Lower Princhester Hut. 6 km
Day 63: Lower Princhester Hut to Aparima Hut. 16 km
Day 64: Aparima Hut to Lower Wairaki Hut. 14 km
Day 65: Lower Wairaki to Struan Flat Rd. (Taylor’s Lodge, Ohai) 28 km
Day 66: Birchwood Wairio Rd. to Merrivale Road. 28 km
Day 67: Merrivale Road to Martin’s Hut. 27 km
Day 68: Martin’s Hut to Colac Bay Tavern. 24 km
Day 69: Colac Bay to Riverton backpackers. 10 km

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Mavora Lakes

Cambo the shuttle driver picked six of us up and dropped the other four off up the Rees Valley. We continued on towards the Greenstone and were nearly at Kinloch when Cambo got a call to say two of the lads he'd dropped off were in the wrong place, they were supposed to be coming to the Greenstone as well. The upshot was we scored a free coffee in Kinloch, but got to our trail very late with a big day stretching ahead of us. So we motored up the manicured Greenstone Track in 30 degree heat, had a late lunch at Greenstone Hut, took off again heading for Taipo Hut hardly having time to admire the kakariki, robins, riflemen and bellbirds. Lucky for us the massive tree falls had all been cleared just three weeks before, and the track was in good condition and in parts was a little like the Ruapehu Round the Mountain Track.

Passburn Valley
We enjoyed the track until the descent which was a bit boggy, nearly claimed my shoe and covered me to the knees in mud. We got to the hut at 5.45 pm and plunged straight into the gorgeous swimming hole in the Mararoa River just below the hut.




Mararoa River Valley
Next day we walked through a totally different but lovely open landscape, the Thomson and Livingstone Ranges on either side. Reaching Boundary Hut was very symbolic - here almost exactly two years ago we had met the young couple, Johno and Corrine, who were walking the Te Araroa Trail and inspired us to try it ourselves.
North Mavora Lake


An odd thing - there was a jet boat perched high up on a bank, way above the river. We thought it odd, and discovered later that a young lad had taken his Dad's jet boat joyriding up the river and smashed it - and hurt himself in the process. We later watched a helicopter retrieving the boat and wondered at the expense.



 We found a lovely spot to camp on the edge of the North Mavora Lake, and enjoyed mushrooms Rob had gathered en route and some delicious pasta donated to us by our camping neighbours.


Our final day on the Mavora was a day of angels, starting with the neighbours bringing us fresh fruit. We think they felt sorry for us, packing up our tent in the rain. We then foolishly turned down an offer of a ride, and plodded down the long, long road for 5 hours. We had heard the riverside track was a mess, and opted to walk out the quickest way. After doing 24 km we'd had enough and very dark clouds were gathering to the SW. Then Tony the Australian fisherman rescued us, went miles out of his way and dropped us at the highway so we could hitch to Te Anau for a much needed rest and resupply. In a few minutes with the skies about to open another angel - the local Presbyterian Minister Karl - picked us up and took us all the way to the door of the YHA - right next to his church! Which is where we are now before we head off into the wild Takitimus.

Notes:

Day 58: Greenstone carpark to Taipo Hut. 21 km
Day 59: Taipo Hut to North Mavora Lake campsite. 28 km
Day 60: North Mavora Lake to near Mossburn/Te Anau junction. 28 km
Day 61: Rest Day, Te Anau


The Mighty Motatapu Track

Wow, this track  was amazing, but first we walked around Lake Wanaka on a still and beautiful morning. We startled a group - a clutch? - of Californian Quails, and watched with great amusement as they tried to regroup while calling to each other "el guapo, el guapo" to warn of the danger we posed.
We arrived at Glendhu Bay to find the enterprising Laurel and Colin ensconced on deck chairs, with two more vacant beside them, and a gourmet lunch for us. What can you say?

We were so well fed we powered up to Fern Burn Hut in no time. I didn't even notice the tricky sidles with steep drop offs, but Rob didn't like them much.





The rain next morning made us lazy, but we finally got going up towards Jack Hall's Saddle, Matt and Seth our young American trail buddies passing us on the way. The descent was steepish and one section was along a narrow ridge with big drop offs - I noticed that all right! It was a huge surprise to turn a corner and see Highlander Hut - we were there by lunch time, and our trail buddies had our sleeping mats ready for us. The scenery was spectacular despite the rain - the hut is totally dwarfed by the surrounding mountain peaks.

Adverse comments in the hut book made us fearful of the coming track, but we loved it. It was hard with two huge climbs and descents and long sidles across very steep terrain, but by now we were fit and felt it was all okay. Of course those young lads passed us again on the second climb to Knuckle Peak - don't you love the name? - and we watched them disappear into the distance. We just sat and admired the views for a while in the sun, were rewarded with sightings of falcons, and finally descended to Rose's Hut way down below us in the Motatapu Valley.

Seth, Debby, Rob and Matt, Motatapu Track

Crossing the Arrow River
Next day, guess what? Yet another climb to Rose's Saddle at 1270 metres, but again we had stunning views and falcons to entertain us. Then it was down, down down all the way to the beautiful Arrow River. It was running high and bank to bank so we sidled on the wet weather track to avoid it, but then decided that was worse. Back to the river and we hoped there would be no swims. There turned out to be 60 - 70 river crossings but lots of  fun except for a tricky section through a gorge where we had to wade down the side of a rushing torrent. The river bed is a kaleidescope of green, gold, blue and white stones and we kept looking for nuggets of gold hiding amongst the stones. No luck on that score, but we did find other riches on the road down from historic Macetown - raspberries, blackberries, green gooseberries, black gooseberries and plums - all lusciously ripe. We ended up with purple hands and had to restrain ourselves from over-indulging. We met runners, cyclists, four-wheel drive cars and speeding motorbikes which was all a bit much after our lonely days in the mountains. The road we followed down into Arrowtown was a feat of engineering, perched on sheer sides reinforced with stone bastions high above the Arrow Gorge. We couldn't resist feasting on yummy fudge in pretty little Arrowtown, and dined out on Indian food at Mantra. Yobbos kept us awake all night which just served to remind us how much we like being away from it all up in the mountains!


Rob found a route through the backroads and alleyways of Arrowtown to get us back on our trail, which led us through Millbrook Estate with its astounding enormous houses and English village look. Slope Hill Road took us past more fascinating architecture, and we admired the restored Raceman's Cottage - more on that soon. Our next track took us across the historic Shotover Bridge, but then we found our next track closed for repairs! What to do? We had little option but to walk along the highway into Frankton where an angel stopped and picked us up. His name was Doug Henderson and he turned out to be the owner and restorer of the afore-mentioned Raceman's Cottage. He was on his way to get his stitches checked (mountain biking accident) in Frankton, but he insisted on taking us all the way to the Queenstown Gardens. How could we refuse? So we resumed our walk into Queenstown, did our chores, watched paragliders landing, then hit the road again. Lon the signwriter took us as far as Wilson's Bay, where we stood in the hot sun for an hour before another angel, Ed the architect picked us up. His son Zandy amused me with tales of Pig and Pigeon Islands and tree-planting, while Ed drove us all the way to the campground in Glenorchy. Of course Ed knew Doug - small world down here. By the way, in case you think we are cheating, we are allowed to get around Lake Wakatipu any way we can - we don't have to walk it, The Trail treats it like a mini Cook Strait.


Notes:

Day 53: Wanaka to Fern Burn Hut. 25 km
Day 54: Fern Burn Hut to Highland Creek Hut. 6 km
Day 55: Highland Creek Hut to Roses Hut. 11 km
Day 56: Roses Hut to Arrowtown Campground. 25 km
Day 57: Arrowtown to Frankton (Glenorchy campground). 16 km




Monday, February 20, 2012

Breast Hill

Rob on Martha Saddle
We awoke next day to a stunning morning and had a great time wandering up a well-marked track alongside the Avon Burn. The trail then followed a 4-wheel drive track that most remarkably threaded its way round rocky spurs high above the river up to Martha Saddle at 1700 metres. By now it was stinking hot and I was dragging my feet and gasping. Rob was simply a machine – he never seemed to flag. His back is obviously better.

Down the other side of the saddle we followed an even more unbelievable bulldozed road – built with Government  farming subsidies in the 60’s – which zigzagged forever down a massive scree slope to Timaru Creek. We made it to the brand new Top Timaru Hut to a friendly welcome from a couple of local trampers, Maurice and Phyllis. We enjoyed their company – and not long after we arrived our American trail buddies, Matt and Seth turned up!




Debby on a gentle section of Timaru Creek
We were pleased to be back in beech forest next morning until we realized what we were in for - a five hour nightmare of steep ascents, narrow sidles high above the river, ridiculously steep descents to multiple river crossings. Near the end we both quailed to see the track snake across a massive slip face with the river hundreds of feet below us. “Track?” - imagine a  faint groove in the slip face the width of a shoe and rounded off on the outer edge with loose material. A loose rock we dislodged bounced noisily down to the river reminding us what our fate would be if we made a false step....  The technique in these situations is to go into a trance, not look down and to place each foot and your walking pole with great care, sometimes kicking a step in the slip face.  I managed to avoid the dreaded freeze up; Rob experienced what he assumed was an extreme sports adrenalin rush through his body – not unpleasant but in no way addictive, he says.

Back in the river gorge just stepping across a pool of water Debby pulled her calf muscle.....arrgh.

A steep 600m climb took us up to Stody’s Hut with its long history of mustering, a dirt floor and a population of mice. My joy was complete. Really. Matt and Seth had beaten us there by a couple of hours. They had kindly written in the hut book  “Rob & Debby – you ROCK”. Slightly patronizing but very nice to get a pat on the back from a couple of fit young men after one of the toughest sections yet. Then at 7.00pm Gold, a  south-north trail walker joined us and helped fend off the mice.

Rob on Breast Hill
The track to Pakituhi Hut was easy and we had an early lunch there with a young Japanese tramper before beginning a descent to Lake Hawea on what was described in the trail notes as a “challenging” section. They declined to state death-defying and terrifying. Which it was.  A brand new track and they took it over a spiny ridge – imagine a dragon’s tail – a series of descending peaks that each looked impossible. My heart was in my mouth for two hours. I wanted to take photos but was too terrified to let go of my handholds – you will just have to believe me.  The solution was to take it step by step, ledge by ledge and loose gravel shute by shute. It was with huge relief we reached the end, high-fived and hugged.

Clutha River
But then all our spirits were restored - when we got to the control gates at Hawea we headed to the pub and there we were rescued by the wonderful Laurel and Colin. Since then they have run us around, sheltered us, fed us gastronomic delights and in general pampered us. I would give you a rundown of all the food we have consumed, but it would take another hour so here’s just a taste: - chicken cordon bleu, lemon and raisin lattice tart, manuka smoked bacon, French toast, greengages, gourmet sandwiches, jaffa balls, blue cod, banoffee pie, and pork pies. Not to mention a bottle or two of lovely wine.

It’s going to be very hard to leave tomorrow and get back on the trail  - and back to the dehyd....

Next stop Arrowtown.

Notes:

Day 48: Ahuriri River to Top Timaru Hut. 22.8 km
Day 49: Top Timaru Hut to Stodys Hut. 14 km
Day 50: Stodys Hut to Lake Hawea township. 22 km
Day 51: Lake Hawea to Wanaka. 24 km
Day 52: Rest Day, Wanaka