Catching up on about half of the South Island!

Hello from beautiful Lake Tekapo Village! If you look at a map of the South Island, you’ll see that we’ve made a ton of progress. We’ve gotten into a good rhythm and we’re cruising! A lot has happened since my last blog, so I’ll attempt to give a little re-cap:

Nelson Lakes National Park – this has been my favorite overall section so far! I wish I could share some photos (but… technology), and I wish those photos could do it any sort of justice. If you’re interested, just google some images: Blue Lake, Lake Constance, Waiau Pass. We took some shorter days through this section and enjoyed a couple of more relaxing afternoons taking in the breathtaking scenery, and a couple of more literally breathtaking dips in mountain streams. Soon after we walked through the little town of St. Arnaud’s, we found a little swimming hole with a tiny little waterfall, so I think it could be considered my shower for the week, right?

Travers Saddle was gorgeous, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky except for the little guy that popped out from behind Mt. Travers as soon as I said “there’s not a cloud in the sky!”

Blue Lake has the clearest natural fresh water in the world (seriously, they tested it! It’s science!); you wouldn’t believe how blue this lake is! Even at the deepest points, we could see all the way to the bottom.

And then there was Lake Constance, which actually was the google-image wallpaper on my work computer for months before we came here. It was so surreal to be finally at this place that I had day-dreamed about for so long.

Then we went over the Waiau Pass, a definite highlight! The climb was intense- a little over 500 meters up in just about a kilometer, mostly rock-scrambling up the face of the mountain. The views from the climb up (which I took a lot of time for whenever I had to stop and catch my breath, which was a lot!) and from the top were stunning! The descent was just as cool and rugged in a different way, with a few spots where we had to put our poles away and rock-climb down.

The couple of days out of Nelson Lakes National Park were easier tramping but just as beautiful, walking along grassy 4-wheel-drive tracks through the mountain river valleys.

My birthday!! – I woke up on my 30th birthday in a little hut in the river valley. We started walking by 7am and enjoyed a lovely 3-hour walk to Boyle Village. From there, we hitch-hiked about 60km to Hanmer Springs, where we splurged on a little cabin with a double bed (super luxurious compared to the twin bunks we’ve gotten used to sharing because of our double sleeping bag!) and a kitchen. We relaxed the entire afternoon, took showers, did laundry, watched some basketball on tv, made dinner, and had plenty of beers with our friend Markus! It was a pretty spectacular 30th birthday.

Boyle Village to Arthur’s Pass – after hitching back to Boyle Village, we set out “on the road again.” The following 5 or so days, we started to practice our stream and river crossings. A lot. Also, we found the sharp, prickly, spiny plants that the South Island has to offer. We were starting to really miss all the wet shoes and scraped-to-shit legs that we loved so much on the North Island!

But seriously, we had some more beautiful days through river valleys!

Then it started raining.  The final part of this track (called Goat Pass) is a mountain pass that travels up the Deception River Valley, which is vulnerable to bad weather… I mean, with a name like that, would you trust it?  The river can rise quickly with heavy rain, and the trail notes advise not attempting the track if heavy rain is forecasted. The only forecast available to us was from the hikers we met coming in from the south, who warned us about lots of rain coming in the next two days.  We (mostly I) made the decision to skip the last 2 days of this section. Instead, we set out to hike the 20km to Arthur’s Pass via road in the rain, but were side-tracked about 8km km in by the “most interesting cafe/motel in New Zealand” in Otira. Interesting it was with tons of weird antiques, relics, and taxidermied possums. We stopped for coffee and fish and chips (and an amazing fireplace) and found out that there was a Backpackers’ lodging across the road. There were 4 of us – Ben, myself, Markus (from Germany), and Aidan (from Australia) – so we were able to split a little cabin.

And because Mother Nature in New Zealand is such a trickster, it cleared up perfectly as soon as we decided to stay in a cabin… 🙂

The next day we tried to walk the road to Arthur’s Pass where we’d join the official TA route again, and quickly realized that the highway through the Otira gorge was a pretty treacherous walk. Only after walking across a long bridge with big trucks and no shoulder into terrible winds (picture this: me going headfirst into the constant wind barely moving forward, working like hell with my trekking poles, with Ben literally PUSHING my pack from behind) did we stopped at a scenic lookout and got a quick hitch the rest of the way to the tiny tourist town of Arthur’s Pass.

Arthur’s Pass to Rangitata River – the first hike out of Arthur’s Pass was beautiful. We climbed through a pine forest and then hiked along ridges with beautiful views of the surrounding mountains.

And then it froze that night. And then it rained for 4 days. Somewhere in there, we hitchhiked to Methven – a great hitch other than realizing seconds after she pulled away that I had left my TRF hat in her cute yellow car – where we resupplied, found a new $2 hat at the Red Cross Shop (that says Miles is Toyota, whatever that means), and hired a shuttle with other hikers to the other side of the Rakaia River. This is one of the rivers that is on the TA route but is a safety hazard that we’re not supposed to cross on foot. (Ok, TA…)

We hiked through the fog and the rain. Then, we hiked all morning through freezing streams afraid our toes might fall off. Don’t worry, they didn’t.

Also, all of our huts had mice.

Some days, we hike for the pure joy of hiking. Other days, we hike simply to get from point A to point B.

Rangitata River to Lake Tekapo – after several days of rain, we came to the Rangitata River, another river on route that we’re not technically supposed to cross. However, we’d talked to lots of hikers and locals who have crossed this river and, as we understand, it’s more of an issue in spring with the snow melt from the mountains and heavy rains. So, we approached it cautiously after several days of rain, with a group of about 6 of us in case group-crossing proved safer (or group shuttle-calling!). Turns out the river wasn’t much affected by the rain and we crossed with no problems.

We then climbed up another valley with multiple crossings along Bush stream, which were much more challenging and potentially hazardous than our “safety hazard” river crossing. The clouds cleared as we climbed up and up over a mountain saddle, along tussocks ridges, and along another stream valley.

The next day was a definite highlight of the TA. We climbed up to Stag Saddle, which is the Te Araroa’s official highest point at 1925 meters. We then took the “alternate route” which took us even higher along a ridge instead of through another valley. The views were THE BEST of Lake Tekapo and of glacier-covered Mount Cook, the highest peak in New Zealand. We followed the ridge down slowly until we met up with the official TA trail again. We planned a long day, luckily, because we descended down southwest toward Lake Tekapo at sunset. For the last hour of our hike, we watched the sun move down behind the distant mountains, with a few dramatic clouds and the mountains’ reflection in the lake. Even after walking about 35 km that day, I think I skipped down that trail.

Yep, some days we hike for the pure joy of hiking. Mom Nature is pretty fucking cool.

We camped next to the lake, then had about a 15 km gravel-road walk into Lake Tekapo Village this morning. We had pies and coffee, followed almost immediately by beer and burgers, then set up camp at the holiday park. We loaded up on veggies and beer tonight, and we’ll get on the road again tomorrow morning.

We’re thinking we’ll complete the TA in about 4 weeks – sort of aiming for April 10th, Ben’s birthday, just because. 🙂