Te Araroa : Lake Tekapo to Twizel

KM this section : 69
KM completed : 2439

Lake Pukaki.

After pretty much taking a day off to hitchhike I don't feel the need of another, so farewell to Lake Tekapo, time for a bit of road walking.  Easy going of course, makes a nice change and I have the gravel road pretty much to myself, walking through flat, windy country with the inevitable ring of mountains on the horizon.  Eventually the route leads downhill, towards another lake, the massive Lake Pukaki, big enough it could pass for a coastal inlet, particularly with the wind driving substantial waves onto the shingle beach.  I manage to find a sheltered spot to camp anyway, there is even a nearby toilet, somewhat oddly placed in pretty much the middle of nowhere.

The Tahr.

Not long to go next morning, and a pleasant if windy walk along the lakeside - the road joins a busier highway, but I head onto a cycle path instead.  For lunch, I shelter from the wind at a small tourist information centre cum salmon shop, am amused to see that where Lake Tekapo has a sheepdog statue, Lake Pukaki has a sheep.  Well sort of, the Himalayan Tahr doesn't look like it worries easily.  I also run into fellow hiker Nathalie, she tells me that the burned patch of lakeside we passed earlier was actually caused by a TA hiker starting an illegal rubbish fire.  Oops.

Downtown Twizel.

A little more cycle trail and I am in Twizel, and now I think it is time for a break.  For one, a day of fast walking on gravel has given me a small blister, could use a day to heal.  But mainly, Twizel seems really nice, a proper compact little town, good shops and many pubs, that is me sorted for a day or so.  Very nice to kick back a bit, relax at the campsite just a short walk across the rugby pitch from the town centre, and generally sort out my plans for the remaining walking.  Seems I won't be seeing many hotel rooms, looks like NZ is pretty full, ah well I am used to the tent now.  Twizel even has an outdoor pool, well, I have to get some exercise, not least to work up an appetite for copious amounts of fish and chips...

Photos to go with this post can be found here.

Te Araroa : Geraldine to Lake Tekapo

KM this section : 75
KM completed : 2370

Highest point of Te Araroa!

I have to say, hitch hiking is pretty easy in NZ.  I never wait more than thirty minutes for a ride, usually rather less, highlights including a trip on the back of a pickup, a lift from a couple who just completed their own Te Araroa adventure, and finally a ride in a car full of hikers driven by a friendly English expat.  I'm at the trailhead for not much after midday, time to walk up another stream, I am used to it though and make fairly short work of the ascent, up to Crooked Spur hut.  5pm is too early to stop, looks like the hut will be full anyway, so I schlep on, it's a lovely evening for walking, over a saddle and into what looks like boggy country but in fact is dry enough, perfect for a wild camp.

Lovely walking down towards Lake Tekapo.

I'm then well placed for a trek through high, stony valleys and up to Stag Saddle, at 1925m the highest point of the trail.  It honestly isn't that exciting, even when I ascend a further fifty metres or so up a steep scree slope, looking for a ridge path the guide has promised as a good alternative way down.  I spot it, seems by 'scramble up to your right' the guide meant 'follow a contour line to your right', ho hum.  Once I get on it though, the ridge makes for superb walking, with glorious views over the blue waters of Lake Tekapo, with snowy Mountains beyond.  This is arguably the best path I've been on in NZ, appropriate then that it : is not the route marked on the official map; was reached in spite of poor directions in the guide; has no way markers at all; and finally disappears into a mess of tussocks about two kilometres before reaching a 4wd track leading to Camp Stream hut.

I stay at the hut for a change, it is another free one, no way I am using the forty dollars of hut passes in my pack, never mind, think of it as a donation to the DOC. Then on to Lake Tekapo the village, via more pleasant walking high above the lake.  Turns out to be a funny little place, just a few restaurants and gift shops really, and as the campsite is two kilometres or so further on I decide to shop and then spend the evening there.  I end up at the camp BBQ again, looking out over the lake, swigging some local beer while I cook up four cheese and bacon burgers (yes I eat all of them).  This isn't that bad a lifestyle...

The sheepdog statue.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.

Te Araroa : Lake Coleridge Lodge to Geraldine

KM this section : 67
KM completed : 2295

Looking back across the Rakaia to the hydro station.

Beyond Lake Coleridge Te Araroa throws up another major obstacle, the Rakaia river, the guide basically says, 'don't attempt to ford this, you will die', but in an annoying 'nudge nudge, if you are a proper tramper you will ford it' way.  Hum... I met a couple of Northbound hikers coming up to the lodge, they waded across... but, they said a new weather system was coming, and I can see a lot of cloud to the North.  Sure enough, I wake to find it has rained in the night and indeed is still raining... there is just no way I can risk a crossing now.

The nearest bridge is around twenty kilometres south, whereas the trailhead on the other side is to the north, making for a sixty-five kilometre detour.  When planning I thought that seemed way too much, now I just go for it, and in fact the rain clears and it becomes a lovely walk along flat road with no traffic, and jaw dropping views of the braided river, the churning grey waters a constant reminder that this was the right option.  Still, I finish the day at least ten kilometres short of the trailhead, when the plan was to be some way past it.

That's what I'm walking on...

Well, not a problem as long as I can make good time... ah.  Unfortunately, while the morning goes well enough, I emerge from a hut after lunch to find the weather has turned, it is chucking it down, and of course this would coincide with an increasingly nonexistent path.  I stop in at another hut, full of hikers sheltering from the rain, but I press on, to find a completely insane route up a swollen creek.  This being Te Araroa, I have to wade the stream many times, and simply walk up it for long sections, would be annoying in good weather but now it is quite horrifying.  I use my poles to feel my way through the turbid waters, stones smacking against my feet as they are washed along... every now and then I must stop to pour out the gravel that has collected in my boots, it really is not much fun.

Eventually I get above the stream, but the 'path' remains awful, no more than a line of snow poles through tussocks and bog.  I won't make my planned hut, no choice but to camp up here and it is cold, wet and miserable, I sleep poorly and struggle to get up the next morning, it's past 10am when I emerge to see it has actually snowed on the mountainside not far above me.  Miraculously though, this turns into a good day, the sun comes out and I find myself walking a flat, windswept plain, going is good, glorious views and it is even dry.  After the late start I am still behind schedule, but I reach the trailhead at 9am next morning - of course, it is on the banks of another unfordable river.

With the Rangitata, and indeed Mount Sunday, behind.

Why the trail comes here I have no idea... apparently this river, the Rangitata, can be forded sometimes, but the flow is currently around ten times the safe level.  The guide has no suggestions as to an alternative, and it is maybe a hundred and fifty kilometres to walk around via the nearest bridge... Well, no help for it but to take an unplanned rest day as I hitch hike around, or at least as far as the small town of Geraldine.  I am more than a bit annoyed, still, there is a nice campsite here, and beer, and I get the BBQ going, it could be worse.  Transient is here, he did ford the Rakaia at least, early the morning I was there from the sound of it, including being swept downstream for a hundred metres... nutter.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.

Te Araroa : Arthur's Pass to Lake Coleridge Lodge

KM this section : 70
KM completed : 2228

Feeling good and rested.

For all the massive weight of food on my back I walk out of Arthur's Pass feeling pretty good, feet feel fine (the infected toe seems to have cleared up), and I'm enjoying the walking.  Funny to think there is only a month or so to go...  I am taking it easy with my heavy pack, a bit of road walking, some actually pleasant forest track, and a well trodden path by a river to West Harper Hut - a 'historic' hut with a dirt floor no less, a bit too historic for comfort I feel and camp outside.

Lake Coleridge.

From here it's up over an easy saddle, and I see a sign with 'Lake Coleridge 5 hours' - am I a day ahead?  Nor quite, it is a big lake, but still easy tramping downriver towards it.  In fact I don't quite reach the lake, there being no track alongside it the trail runs one valley over as it were.  Anyway, I camp, build a fire to cook on, as is becoming a habit, and have a restful evening.  This taking it easy has some merit...

The slacking continues all the way to the lodge, along a gravel road with stunning views of the surrounding peaks, then the length Lake Coleridge itself, and finally the Rakaia river.  These days I walk quite quickly on roads, so make it to the lodge before 4pm, time to shower, relax, even play a round of pitch and putt golf!  Oh and eat lots of food of course :)

Pitch and putt!

Photos to go with this post can be found here.

Te Araroa : Hurunui Hut #5 to Arthur's Pass

KM this section : 72
KM completed : 2158

One of many hut photos from this section.

I keep walking through flat bottomed glaciated valleys, it's all very pleasant and makes for a fast pace, I reach Locke Stream Hut early and have time to wash my clothes and yes, glue my boots.  I don't go as far as a young French chap and wash myself in the river, well it is freezing.  From here, sadly the path deteriorates,  crazy up and down through forest, and then a path, the 'Flood Track', which essentially seems to have fallen into the large river next to it.  I struggle on, but really am not happy to see a sign saying eight hours to my planned hut stop, this at 3pm.

The rushing Deception River.

Well... from here at least the path is well trodden, the route up the Deception River and over Goat Pass being a famous one, in fact tomorrow there will be a race here, part of the coast to coast event in which people arguably even more mad than me run, cycle and of course kayak across the island.  So at least on the flat bits I can see where many people have walked... for the rest, I scramble up boulders, ford the rushing river over and over - thirty-four times according to a DOC guy I speak to later.  It is all completely insane, but somehow fun, good that my pack is light now with little food left, my feet feel fine, even the stones in my shoes not a problem, and so what if the front of one boot is only held together with wire... I make it to Upper Deception Hut for 8:45pm, it is still light, there's one spare bunk among the DOC people setting up for the race, and they even give me a beer.  Could be a lot worse.

The other side of Goat Pass.

It's a short if hard climb to the pass next morning, whereafter things get easier (boardwalk!) and by the time the runners start passing me the going is pretty flat so it is no problem.  Then just a few kilometres of road and I am at Arthur's Pass, not much of a place, no way am I getting boots here.  Fortunately I am in time for the second of two daily buses to Greymouth, a proper town on the west coast... the bus journey confirms just how mountainous South Island is, starting at the high pass we follow a winding road through steep valleys all the way to the sea, and this is one of only two routes from Christchurch to the West, the other is similar.  Nice to see the Tasman again, and nice to find a pub (beef schnitzel - seems to be a kiwi thing).  Shame there are no beds to be had in town, full of people for either the coast to coast, or Chinese New Year.  But, there is a free campsite, fair play.

The mark of the Kea!

I do a big shop, so much cheaper than up on the trail, and it's back to the Warehouse for more boots.  Their most expensive pair this time, fifty dollars - how long will they last... then a bus back to the pass, six dollars to camp here, it is very busy although that doesn't stop the one and only bar here calling time at 8pm, total madness.  Ah well, I got my fish and chips and a beer or three in at least.  There are many warnings here about Keas, attractive mountain parrots which will steal your food and even rip your tent to get to it!  Well, I change my routine a bit and put the huge bag of food inside the inner tent with me... it works, but a Kea did go for my peg bag which I left under the flysheet as usual, doh.  There is a small beak mark just there as well, but I think the tent will survive...

Photos to go with this post can be found here.

Te Araroa : Upper Waiau Forks to Hurunui Hut #5

KM this section : 104
KM completed : 2086

This is a bit more like it.

I walk down the Waiau river, the going here is hard as I've left the tourist route (the 'Travers - Sabine circuit') and am now on paths used by TA trampers and few others.  I pass an outdoor centre that apparently accepts packages for collection by hikers - why wasn't I organised enough to do that?  Feet feel OK, but the whole toe end of one of my boot soles is now coming away.  Maybe I could glue it back on, but after the outdoor centre the 'path' gets worse, with repeated wading through streams and bog.  Trying to glue wet fabric is not going to work - not easy this extreme cobblers.

Two thousand kilometres!

I camp in the wild again, nice spot apart from the ever present sandflies, evil things that descend in swarms whenever I pause - and for some reason are particularly attracted to the ears, nose and eyes, when they aren't just biting me of course.  To add to my woes, while my blisters seem better, where one of my toenails has cracked (has happened with both big toes, simply from the walking I think) an infection has set in - I'll spare you the details of my treatment regime.

At least from here the walking improves, NZ's geology continues to surprise, this is a glaciated region of steep valleys and many lakes such as I've just passed.  But where the river flowing from a lake has eroded the land down enough, the lake vanishes and the result is a a broad grassy plain surrounded by steep hillsides.  This makes for glorious, and generally pleasant walking, though of course at times the trail finds a way to leave the flat and scramble through woods up and down the steep valley sides instead.  I camp outside various huts, saves money and they're pretty full, may as well use the tent.  The normal world of roads, houses, television and so on seems a long way away...

Anne River Hut on a misty morning.

Photos to go with this post can be found here and here.

Te Araroa : St Arnaud to Upper Waiau Forks

KM this section : 53
KM completed : 1982

The Travers River.

Leaving St Arnaud, I have a few problems to work with : my boots are coming apart, my feet are not fully healed, and there is the sheer logistical difficulty of walking the next two hundred and thirty kilometres or so until the next town with only what I can carry to eat.  OK, I plan for eight and a half days, so have a big lunch before setting off, after one and a half days of healing - the luxury.  An easy first day, seventeen kilometres or so along a lake and then through pleasant grassy meadows.  Seems to work, that and the savlon I bought, next morning the feet feel better.  As for the boots, using the laces to hold them together seemed to work, but I worried about them wearing through, so have bought some wire... and even some araldite.  On the trail footwear maintenance - or as I call it, 'extreme cobblers' - will give me something to do in the evenings.

Blue Lake.  Not so much blue as transparent really.

Big test of feet and boots coming now, proper high country as I walk up along the Travers river, and up, and just keep climbing, so high that when I reach the Travers Saddle, the mountain pass that is today's high point, there is still snow on the peaks to either side.  Certainly is an awesome spot, and one not many will see.  The feet seem happy, I guess I am not taking many steps, and the boots are holding.  I make it to the hut, a fancy affair that costs fifteen dollars a night to stay in, too rich for me so I camp outside.  Even that is five dollars.  I guess this is because these are busy trails, I see plenty of tourists and even some Kiwi trampers.  It is really very nice to walk a well used path.

Lake Constance.

So, next day I do it again... up past the phenomenally clear waters of Blue Lake, and then Lake Constance, to Waiau Pass, the second highest point of the trail.  Takes some doing to get up there, but worth it to be in this otherworldly place, mountains all around and no sign of the works of man.  From there I descend, a lot, practically a kilometre straight down, still me and my feet make it somehow.  Upper Waiau Forks isn't a town, or even a hut, just a bit of flat ground by the river.  I camp up, build a fire, and cook my dinner over it - everybody should do this at least once in their lives. 

High point of Waiau Pass.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.

Te Araroa : Tarn Hut to St. Arnaud

KM this section : 60
KM completed : 1929

Time to get my feet wet, yet again.

I depart the hut after tidying a bit and having a muesli bar breakfast - hmm, it occurs, I bet readers are asking, 'what is Timmy eating up there?'.  Well whether you are or not, here is a typical days food on the go : three 40g muesli bars; 125g processed cheese (e.g. Chesdale 'finest cheddar made better'); 75g crackers; 75g sweets (e.g. Werther's - boiled sweets with fat from Germany!); 85g noodles (some hot food is good); 125g sweet biscuits; 100g chocolate.  Sounds healthy no?  Probably running a calorie deficit but I struggle to eat more, and lack of energy is not a problem thus far.  I eat plenty in town of course.

Mount Ellis.

Oh yeah, walking.  Well, my South Island honeymoon couldn't last forever.  I don't get far before taking a wrong turn and wasting an hour - down pointing arrows can mean 'straight ahead' here it seems.  The correct path is pretty bad, a near vertical descent, then along a river via a route that involves much scrambling over rocks and inching along narrow ledges, plus of course the occasional wade across.  Eventually I reach open ground, walking is better but there's a mountain to climb and it is getting late.  In fact for some reason the marked path skips the Mount Ellis summit, but I have to climb it, it's about the only good bit of an otherwise miserable walk.  I'm now in danger of failing to reach a hut before dark, so find myself jogging downhill.  I make it for 8:45pm, still light but not ideal.  Just me in the hut again...

6.30 in the evening is an entirely sensible time to be up a mountain, oh yes.

At least after this exertion I have just a days walk to St Arnaud, and it isn't too bad - lots of contour lines, through interesting geology, apparently the earth's mantle poked through the crust here, meaning mineral rich rocks (and not too much vegetation, yay).  Have a few problems though... pushed too hard yesterday, my feet are sore and I have a new blister, and while the boots are generally OK, the sole of one is coming away.  Hopefully wrapping the laces around will hold it together, as St Arnaud has precisely one shop, sure ain't getting new shoes here.  At least there is a campsite, and even a bar and cafe, so I can rest up for a day and, with any luck, heal.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.

Te Araroa : Havelock to Tarn Hut

KM this section : 99
KM completed : 1869

Didn't see any dwarves.

Pelaros Bridge really doesn't have much going on, though it was where that silly barrel scene in the second Hobbit movie was filmed.  And it has a cafe, which in normal Kiwi fashion shuts at 5pm, so I am there at four, to buy various pies, cakes and chocolate.  I'm back for more at 8am next day too, and then off for a nice walk along the Pelaros river and up into the mountains.  No cycle tracks in this section, so how will the 'walkways' of South Island measure up?

Rocking the hut.

Cloudfall!

Not too bad it seems - yes, there is some crazy up and down, but I'm pleased to see some contour line following.  And actual maintenance!  In some areas a massive amount of work has been done to clear a path through what seem like acres of deadfall, fair play.  Better yet, these paths are going through terrain that rewards the walker, I climb up over wonderful open ridges, with views to the sea and mountains marching on the horizon.  After a convivial night at Starveall hut (hi, Nancy, Will and Sandra), I find blue skies above, but a blanket of cloud a few hundred metres below, the surrounding peaks rising through it like islands in a pale sea.

Summit of Mount Rintoul.

Of course there are mountains along the way, biggest of them Mount Rintoul (named for a nineteenth century editor of the Spectator), a little over seventeen hundred metres.  A tough climb, but not so hard as the guide seems to think... I'd looked at it, and thought I had some tough days planned, three over twelve hours.  In fact I stay under eleven hours, and still walk a bit further than planned.

Indeed, after the steep descent from Mount Rintoul I reach Tarn Hut for 6:30pm, time for a bathe in the eponymous tarn.  Seems I have the place to myself, might as well make the most of it then... I chop some wood, get a fire going in the stove, cook my mac 'n cheese on it and even warm some water to wash my clothes.  Living like a real mountain man here, oh yes.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.