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...

Gas station was opening at 7am and I made sure I'm there exactly at that time to have a coffee before hitching back to trail. It wasn't easy to catch a ride though, people were still half asleep and the rising sun was hitting directly front windows of passing cars. I got joined by a couple from Christchurch going back to trail as well. They decided to wait on the side until I get out. After 45 minutes a car stopped and a bubbly lady jumped out of it asking where I wanted to go. I explained best I could and asked her if she would have enough space for two more people. I waved at the couple and shortly after we were on our way to the trail. It turned out that the lady worked for Simply New Zealand and I met her yesterday at the shop asking for Paua shells. She and her husband were going to do shopping in the other town as they Te Anau markets too expansive. Ride finished after 15 minutes and we started walking. I had a short conversatio...

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...