Legs and Borders

Second side quest I decided to tackle was another Great Walk called Kepler Track just outside Te Anau where I have stayed during Te Araroa hike. It was possible to see Kea's, the only alpine parrots in the world here. I had a chance to see them before in Arthur's Pass Village but I decided to skip this resupply point and carry on. I took a ferry from Stuart Island and a series of hitchhikes from Bluff in the morning and reached Te Anau at 6pm. Day was slow going, at few points I had to wait for two hours before someone decided to pick me up and usually it was only short ride till the next town. I can't complain though as eventually I reached my destination. I decided to stay at Rosie's Backpacker Homestay (last time it was Te Anau Central Backpackers) and it was a good decision. I arrived just in time for supper, hikers cooked lasagna, pizza and pasta and everyone shared the food. It was Rosie's home, she turned a couple of spare rooms into the bedrooms for backpack...

Te Araroa quest has been accomplished but since I got one more week left in New Zealand I have time for a couple of side quests as well. Great Walk in Stuart Island called Rakiura Track and kiwi spotting being top of the list. Day 1 After boarding the ferry in Bluff our captain warned us that the ride will be "spicy", the sea was rough today because of the 95 km per hour winds. His advise was to undress (keep cold), don't move around during the ride and raise hand if we will need a baggy. We started hopping on top of the white water soon after. At this point I was regretting having a mutton pie, latte and banana muffin for breakfast. Luckily I survived. It was close though and I was holding the paper bag in my hand towards the end. A girl from Switzerland called Nicole I met yesterday at the lodge was also on the ferry, I shared the taxi to the Rakiura trailhead and hiked with her for couple of hours until she stopped at the Port William Hut. We ma...

Last day on the trail, it was better than expected but inevitably the realisation came to me that TA was more about the journey than the destination. It rained all night but it was also very windy which was somewhat helpful, tent was mostly dry when I was folding it. I left the campsite at 6am and started the road walk towards Invercargill. Got there just before PacN'Save opened at 8am. I did a small resupply and ate a chicken, ham and pineapple bap with two apple danishes and a latte. Then the road walk to Bluff continued. At midday I got overtaken by Kasia the Welsh girl, she was meeting Scott from Australia at the finish line, they were planning to stay at the Bluff Lodge, she recommended the place to me as well. Weather got better at this point, it was still windy but rain had gone away. At Greenhills I walked next to very friendly black goat who loved scratches, for some reason it was living chained to a wooden shack by the road....

"Sergeant Colon had had a broad education. He'd been to the School of My Dad Always Said, the College of It Stands to Reason, and was now a post-graduate student at the University of What Some Bloke In The Pub Told Me." Terry Pratchett Penultimate day on Te Araroa, it was a long beach walk in the rain and wind but I managed to find a Paua shell in return! Morning looked quite grim, I could hear the rain drumming on the roof of the cabin. I set off as soon as it got quiet. I decided to walk the section to Riverton on the road, the tide was high and the beach shallow and stony. I've arrived in Riverton at 9am, had a good (but not hiker sized) breakfast at the Jacob's Bakehouse Cafe and did a small resupply at the Supervalue. It was a long sandy beach walk from here. Right at the start of it I picked up a Paua shell, it was quite surprising I even though they might be quite common here so I kept on looking but didn't manage to find another, even broken one. Looks...

"Writing is the most fun anyone can have by themselves" Terry Pratchett Last TA special has been completed. Ten hours of walking through a relentless, knee+ deep mud. It took twenty minutes to wash my feet, socks and shoes in the stream at the end of it. Weather in the morning was miserable. It was raining all night and things inside my tent were getting damp. I begun walking in the thick fog with head torch on. Mud started immediately on the downhill here and it was straight to the main course. I had to bushwalk around the biggest puddles as the mud would go over my waist if I tried to tackle it. I tried to keep it at knee deep level and duck to the side when possible. Trail was going mainly through the forest but there was also few tussock sections and they could be deceptive. They looked shallow and innocent but were also quite deep. I tripped and landed on my knees twice going through them. Additionally I scored a butt and a face landing, sliding d...

Nice and easy day leading to a fairly difficult section tomorrow. My tent was soaking wet in the morning and got immediately drenched after I set it up in the evening. Morning was sunny but the exterior of my MSR got soaked from condensation and dew, I had to hang it outside the backpack to dry. I went down from the Woodlaw hill and carried on walking along the last farmland on the TA. It turned out that previously closed Island Bush Track was opened again and I didn't have to detour around it, logging operations must have stopped few weeks ago. It saved me good 3 kilometres of walking. I arrived at the Merriview Hut at midday and managed to get rid of rubbish as the private hut had a bin (extremely rare sight in NZ), after a lunch break I carried on into the dreaded Longwood Forest. My plan was to cut the distance to Colac Bay as much as possible, initially I planned to stop at Bald Hill, the mud on the ascent here was bad but it wasn't anyt...