Legs and Borders

"I couldn't find a campsite so I ended up bush bashing around this lake until 10pm with my headlight on until I found a flat meadow I could camp on. And that's how I've spend my 71st birthday" Mark Long day with wet feet. Trail from the parking to the Greenstone Hut was pristine, I must have met over twenty people that were sleeping in the hut last night walking back to their cars. One of them was Quadzilla, calendar year triple crowner. I knew he was doing the TA and was hoping to see him along the way. He and few other PCT hikers were heading North. It turned out that I've met the girl Quadzilla was hiking with on the PCT two years ago, we were both part of a trail magic around Hiker Town. Her trail name was Marvel. Later on her friends told me that she actually changed her legal name to it. That was some serious, American style commitment right there. After the Greenstone Hut trail quality went drastically down for the next 10 miles. Trail was o...

"I used the same bucket to piss in for the last four years and I swear it got heavier from the toxins" Johnny Today I made my way around Lake Whakatipu Bypass, it took three rides and three hours of walking but I got to the other side in the end. I've started later than I wanted to, it was freezing cold in the morning and my phone did not recharge fully overnight. Finally I left with 75% battery hoping that it will last me until the next town. It was an easygoing track between two cities, what could go wrong? Except that I've taken the wrong turn, decided to get back to the trail over the hill which had a cliff drop on the other side so I had to make my way back by bushwalking through a farmland. It was an interesting start to the day. From here I walked to Frankton which had (the first!) PacN'Save in the South Island along the TA. I resupplied here for the next four days. Scott from Australia joined me while I was sorting it ou...