Te Araroa (day 64) - Breast Hill to Damper Bay [Wanaka] / mile 1631

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 hike with their towns walking group and asked me plenty of questions about Te Araroa. Then they took a picture of me and I took one with them in return. We were walking the same path after all!
I had another food stop at Albert Town and did a mixture of roadwalking and river tracking to Wanaka. I wanted to get there fast and potentially hike out. It was one of those busy, tourist towns I wasn't particularly fond of. I got to the centre at 3pm, resupplied for 3 days at New World, sat down for half an hour in front of swarmed by people Lake Wanaka and carried on along the track out of town.
It took me two more hours to reach the final destination, Damper Bay which was still along the Lake Wanaka (it was huge). Here I managed to find a small beach and clear enough space to put the tent up. The place looked like something out of Cast Away but it was sheltered from the wind and serene. It felt great to have a private beach for the night.
I took a bath in the lake and gave my nails and toes a trim. After all the good food I had today I decided to skip the supper. Next town was only 50 miles away, even if I had two slow days I could still be there on the third one and perhaps have a Nero.

As I find often during long hikes, it's nice to have a whiff of humanity but it's even better to go back to the quiet, spacious and hidden corners along the trail. Nothing wrong with being a little bit antisocial from time to time.

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