Legs and Borders

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, ...

I nearly went through all four seasons today, crossing Ahuriri wasn't possible so I had to take the detour. It was still raining in the morning, I put my wet underwear, pants, socks and shoes on, ate porridge I cold soaked overnight and hiked out. Next couple of hours were a mixture of rain and wind. Wind would dry my clothes, rain would make me wet again, it happened several times. Eventually weather stabilized, but it was quite windy until the whole day. At around midday I started to see Northbounders, few crosses the river yesterday and camped on the other side but the ones trying to cross today couldn't do it, everyone was taking the detour to the bridge few kilometres downstream. I reached Ahuriri at 1pm, checked both recommended crossing points, but the water would go above my knees immediately after stepping into the river and my trekking pole would disappear while trying to check the path. Water was all muddy, current very...

Rainy day spend walking along the canals and lakes. After a decent breakfast at the holiday park (avocado, banana and Korean rice noodle salad) I started tramping around 6am. Trail was still running along Alps2Ocean cycling route and it was easygoing. It begun to rain at 10am. I caught up with Paul before midday he wasn't feeling it, I knew his tent wasn't rainproof anymore, he even bought couple of bin bags to put over it in case it did. I haven't seen him for the rest of the day and there was a lodge along the trail so perhaps he chose to go there rather than risk getting wet at night. It carried on raining and it was cloudy for the rest of the day, I stopped halfway through the first of three climbs we had to do on this section. It was next to a stream in the forest. It wasn't a campsite but it looked like people camped here often. Tomorrow trail was crossing a fairly big river called Ahuriri which after two days of rai...

Weather wasn't disastrous in the morning and I could have continued on but I felt quite flat after yesterday's marathon and since we just went past the middle point of South Island I decided to have a day off. And a lazy one it was.  I had a cold soaked porridge oats for breakfast but I put in too much water and it was quite soupy but trial had to be done as I was planning to make them on trail from now on. They tasted good. Then I went to town centre for a coffee with Alex from Germany and Sam from Canada, they both stayed at the campsite since yesterday and decided to have a zero day like me, everyone else was gone. We met Paul and his friend David from Austria in town and we all went to AJ's Coffee for a morning brew. Paul wildcamped 10 kilometres before Twizel last night and was planning to stay at the backpackers in a private room tonight. It cost 160$, way above my budget but he liked privacy and was happy to pay it. ...

Big day, it actually felt like two and might lead to my zero day tomorrow. I decided to take the challenge of walking Tekapo Canal in one day, there were few reasons for that. It was supposed to be raining the day after, there was no official campsite between two towns (lots of good flat camp space though) and the water sources were scarce. I started hiking at ridiculous time, it was 3:30am when I set off with the head torch on. Hiking alongside the canal in the dark was fun. I switched off the torch and followed the white line of the asphalt road, sky was jam packed with stars. It was like walking on a giant treadmill spectating the universe. It was cold and humid, I had to wear all the layers to keep warm. After 4am I could see first glimpses of the sunrise and at 5:30am the light spectacle really kicked off. Trail was following the Alps2Ocean cycling path for the whole day so the grading was very generous for th...