Legs and Borders

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 ...

Sunday, 21st of January 2024. Grindy day, it reminded me of hiking Tararua Range in North Island. Trail was constantly going up and down like an endurance run and the last climb was just pure ridiculousness. Early morning start as per usual, I finished the climb onto Martha Saddle and begun descending towards Top Timaru Hut. Trail was quite easy to start with, running along Timaru River on 4wd track. I got to the hut at 9am, one Nobo hiker was still here, she told me that next section is a bit of a head scratcher. People tent to walk it along the river but after few days of rain it wasn't possible, flood track was the only option. Top Timaru had one of the more picturesque long drop toilets on the entire TA so I had to take a picture before I left. Problem with the flood tracks running along the rivers was that they rarely made much sense. They ran way up then tumbling back to the river, cross it to the other side, cross it back after 50 metres, ...