Legs and Borders

Since I was running on schedule and the weather was supposed to be bad today I decided to take a day off. It was just a regular eat, sleep and walk around town kind of day. I decided to buy five days of resupply at the Fresh Choice for the next leg of TA, skip the upcoming town and go straight to Riverton. I went with cold soaked porridge for breakfast, peanut butter and nutella wraps (I stole the idea from Atsushi) premade and packed in separate ziplock bags for lunch and noodles with chicken and peas for dinner. Snack selection were nut bars, trailmix and Whittaker's chocolates. I threw few boiled eggs, dried apple slices and Oreos to the mix. I had a coffee at the gas station (they always have best and cheapest coffee), then had an amazing venison and plum sauce pie at the Miles Better Pies and bought new pair of undies as my old ones got too big (or I got too thin) and they were sliding off my arse as I wal...

Today I was mainly trying to run away from rain through an obstacle course of blow down trees. It was raining all night but my sturdy MSR tent took it really well and most of everything was dry in the morning. It stopped at 7am and despite the weather forecast announcing thunderstorms the sky was looking fairly clear. It was still 30 miles before I could get a hitchhike to town (or so I though at the time) so I was trying to get as far as I could to have a longer day off tomorrow. Initially trail was wet but easygoing, running along a four wheel drive. Eventually it went over a bridge to the other side of the lake and into the forest, here the issues begun. Despite the visible effort of Department of Conservation to keep it tidy, path was full of blow down trees and it looked more like a obstacle course from ninja warrior than a trail. After 5 kilometres of it I was done and took an alternate path running alongside the gravel road on the other side o...

"I couldn't find a campsite so I ended up bush bashing around this lake until 10pm with my headlight on until I found a flat meadow I could camp on. And that's how I've spend my 71st birthday" Mark Long day with wet feet. Trail from the parking to the Greenstone Hut was pristine, I must have met over twenty people that were sleeping in the hut last night walking back to their cars. One of them was Quadzilla, calendar year triple crowner. I knew he was doing the TA and was hoping to see him along the way. He and few other PCT hikers were heading North. It turned out that I've met the girl Quadzilla was hiking with on the PCT two years ago, we were both part of a trail magic around Hiker Town. Her trail name was Marvel. Later on her friends told me that she actually changed her legal name to it. That was some serious, American style commitment right there. After the Greenstone Hut trail quality went drastically down for the next 10 miles. Trail was o...

"I used the same bucket to piss in for the last four years and I swear it got heavier from the toxins" Johnny Today I made my way around Lake Whakatipu Bypass, it took three rides and three hours of walking but I got to the other side in the end. I've started later than I wanted to, it was freezing cold in the morning and my phone did not recharge fully overnight. Finally I left with 75% battery hoping that it will last me until the next town. It was an easygoing track between two cities, what could go wrong? Except that I've taken the wrong turn, decided to get back to the trail over the hill which had a cliff drop on the other side so I had to make my way back by bushwalking through a farmland. It was an interesting start to the day. From here I walked to Frankton which had (the first!) PacN'Save in the South Island along the TA. I resupplied here for the next four days. Scott from Australia joined me while I was sorting it ou...

Long push to town today through several different saddles. I left the hut in the early morning, Atsushi was also up but decided to give it few more hours before starting as it was too cold for him. Trail immediately shot up and that's how the rest of the day look like, 1-2k feet ascent and immediate descent, it felt like being on a rollercoaster. Weather was excellent, especially after yesterday's wind, rain and snow cocktail. It was warm and sunny with few clouds scattered around. I've reached Rose's Hut at 11am and had breakfast. As I was leaving I could see Scott from Australia heading towards the hut. After the Roses Saddle there was a river walk section which everyone was avoiding yesterday and walking the flood route alternate. I hated river alternates and gave the river a go, it was well worth it. Not only it was quite pretty, carved into a valley of solid stone, which was quite comfortable to walk on but it also saved me quite a bit of ti...

Short day but very satisfying. I woke up, it was raining. Heavily. I decided to stay in the tent until it gets better. It did around 8am I ate an apple an the cold soaked porridge, wrapped the camp up and hiked out. The tent stakes broke (again) as I was folding them up but I decided to address it later. It didn't take long before rain came back. Road was going around the lake and through a massive Glendhu Bay Lakeside Holiday Park, I asked at the reception here if they could borrow me few tools to fix the tent and they did! I got some industrial lubricant and a wrench and managed to screw the parts back together - the thread was gone so I wouldnt be able to do it manually. Trail soon hit the dirt road and before I knew it I was climbing Motatapu Track in the dense forest. Eventually it came out onto a tussock plain and went along the ridges to Fern Burn Hut. Here I met Too Clean a triple crowner from US and Thomas from Germany, they were zeroing in the hut due to the w...

A town day but also not really a town day. It all started with descending from an impressive ridge. Breast Hill in the morning looked quite mediocre, I'm not gonna lie. But as very often is the case it's not the first impression that matters but what is underneath.. Or on the other side. And what was on the other side of Breast Hill was simply breathtaking, I would count it as one of my personal top 5 views on the entire Te Araroa. The descent from the ridge overlooking Lake Hawea was an absolute, steep delight. Trail was going down over 4000 feet or 1 km, but the weather and timing was perfect for this kind endeavour. Once I got to the bottom, rest of the day was.. roadwalking from town to town. First I visited Lake Havea village where I bought some delicious food I was craving for the last couple of days. I carried on along the Lake Hawea Track towards Albert Town where I met two lovely old ladies Anne and Norma. They were on a ...