Te Araroa (day 58) - Stag Saddle to Lake Tekapo / mile 1504

"Being offended is the natural consequence of leaving one's home" Fran Lebowitz

I woke up in the morning just before the sunrise. The tent was completely frozen and so was the moss around it. I've put all of my layers on and started to pack up.

To be fair, it wasn't that bad, it wasn't raining and wind was minimal, after 20 minutes I was on my way down from the Stag Saddle. I stayed off trail last night, so I had to find my way back to it. I followed a stream that was crossing it on my gps. The trail I chose to reconnect with was an old Te Araroa running through the valley, the new, more scenic one was higher up on the ridge but since I couldn't find it yesterday (no markers) I decided to gave up on it.

Alternate was going through the tussock land, not many people was using it, the trail wasn't easy to spot but it was marked really well. I was walking from one marker to the other and it took about 3 hours to reach the Camp Stream Hut. I have met five Northbounders here setting up to leave in the opposite direction. I spread out my still frozen tent on the ground to thaw and dry it, had breakfast (salami, tortillas and chocolate) and talked with them about the trail conditions. They've been well organised, booked their shuttles around the rivers and updated me on the weather. After 20 minutes I was back on the grind.

From here on path got fairly flat and easy to navigate. Paul and Craig caught up with me soon after, they were both camping not far from where I stayed last night. Paul on the other side of Stag Saddle and Craig in the Royal Hut. Craig went ahead fairly quickly as he was chasing his girlfriend Lauren for couple of days now, surprisingly she wasn't slowing down much so it looked like he would be doing it for quite a while. Mysteries of love, eh?

Me and Paul stayed behind looking at him disappearing in the distance. We hiked together for the rest of the day talking crap about relationships. For the last 8 miles trail came out onto a gravel and eventually asphalt road, it was easy to walk along this huge and beautifully blue lake. Paul's mum wasn't feeling well, he was racing to the town to call her. He had to buy a new SIM card as the one he was using stopped working. I ended up borrowing him my phone and he called her. Turned out she only had a minor accident and was doing fine.

We arrived at Lake Tekapo at 4pm, I wasn't planning to stay here, all the accomodation was expensive and mostly booked out. It was a very popular tourist destination and I could see why, the views of the lake and the mountains around it were spectacular. Paul also couldn't find anything suitable, he went to one of the hotels and got offered a six bunk room but he had to rent all six bunks to stay, it cost 250$. He refused the offer and was also thinking about hiking out.

I went to 4Square supermarket and bought just enough food to keep me going to the next town called Twizel which was 32 miles away. The trail was following Tekapo Canal most of the way to it, path was flat and straightforward, many people were doing a "one day hike over night challenge" to get there. I didn't know if I was up for that but I decided to wake up earlier and be there at reasonable hour to maybe stay at the holiday park.

I camped outside Lake Tekapo in a pine forest just out of the eyesight of people living in the area. It was nice and peaceful although I could still hear my "neighbours" chatting in their backyards. The only thing I needed at the moment was a shower but that could wait until tomorrow.