Queenstown falls just before kilometer 2700 on the Te Araroa. Another way of looking at this is that it’s just over 300 kilometers from the end. I think this is where the reality hits many TA hikers: the end is near.
For some, this may be a scary or sad reality. We know of so many people that started to really slow down at this point to make it last longer; perhaps taking a day or two off in Queenstown followed by hiking shorter days and taking more days off along the way before finally reaching Bluff.
For whatever reason, this reality had the opposite effect on us. Not only did we not slow down, we sped up. We were excited to get to Bluff! Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that we wanted to rush through or get it over with or anything… we were simply really pumped to achieve the goal we’ve been working on so hard and so long! Also, our flight home was already scheduled, so finishing the trail had no bearing on when our adventure would end. The sooner we finished this trail, the more we’d be able to see and do in New Zealand!
Queenstown to Te Anau – When we got to Queenstown, we walked around briefly, got a couple supplies, and had a coffee. At this point on the trail, we hit another “safety hazard” – this time in the form of a large lake. We decided to take the cheap route around to the remote trailhead and hitchhike. We got to Glenorchy easily, then got on the road to attempt to hitch the more remote section of road to the trailhead. Ben finally convinced me that we should walk and hitch at the same time, so that if we couldn’t get a hitch, then we could at least make it to a campground around 25km down the road. As I begrudgingly prepared to walk (put my hair up and my hat on, which for some reason involved taking my glasses off and setting them on top of my pack…), we threw our thumbs out and a camper van pulled over. I got so excited, I grabbed my pack and ran to the van and hopped in. It wasn’t until we were about 5k down the road that I realized that everything was just a little bit blurry. I think I’ve mentioned before that we’re no strangers to losing things on this trip, so somehow losing my glasses on the side of the road didn’t really phase me… and I certainly didn’t want to give up this hitch that was going exactly where we were going… and I was planning to get new glasses anyway… (woops!)
We got to the trailhead and had about a 2 hour walk along easy track ahead of us, and I was just stubborn enough to not waste a pair of daily contacts on a 2 hour walk. It was a beautiful walk with lots of waterfalls (I think), and we stayed that night at a really nice hut, with flushing toilets!
The next few days were pretty easy-going and really beautiful (I know because I did wear my contacts) along rivers and lakes. We had pulled ahead of some fellow trampers and didn’t catch up with any, so we felt like we were all alone on the trail and in the huts. We did share a hut one night with a local hunter, who told us all about “the roar”. About this time of year, the stags “roar,” so hunters bring out these little bugle-looking things to do their stag calls. (And all the hunters of the world shake their head at my shameful explanation…).
The next day, we were supposed to do a farm-track walk which turned out to be a wet mess, so we opted to hop out on the gravel road so we could make better time since we planned to hitch to Te Anau for resupply. We walked about 25km on the gravel road and were but 500 meters or so to the highway where we planned to hitch when a DOC (department of conservation) pickup truck pulled up and the woman asked if we wanted a ride to Te Anau. Ben kept up the adult conversation with Jen in the front seat, while I made silly faces and giggled with James, her 6 month old baby, in the back seat. Jen wonderfully offered to let us stay at her place, and when we declined (we’re focused on our mission!), she gave us her number so we could take her up on the offer if/when we come back through Te Anau, gave us a bunch of freeze-dried backpacker meals, and dropped us off at the supermarket. After resupply and lunch, we got back out on the road to hitch to our next trailhead. It was then that we paid for all of the good-luck hitches we ever had in New Zealand, and stood on the side of the road for 2 hours. We were just about to walk back to town in defeat when a car finally pulled over for us! We got to our turnoff and walked the 6k down the gravel road to our hut, arriving just before dark.
Takitimu Forest – from our hut at the base of the Takitimu range, we climbed up and over a saddle and then out into the tussocks. And just when we thought we’d probably seen everything, New Zealand went and awed us again. Golden tussocks taller than me surrounded by and dotted with bright green forest, still with the view of the fiordland mountains in the distance. After descending, we spent the rest of that day and the next morning making our way through the beautiful forest tracks.
Southland – the final 4 days felt a LOT like we were back in the North Island. We got a lot of it all – farm tracks, road walks, muddy forests, and beaches. As soon as we got out of Takitimu forest, we had two long sections through private farms (mostly walking on gravel roads). Camping isn’t permitted in those long sections, so we found one little bit of public conservation land (Woodlaw Forest) between the two of them to pitch our tent one night. We heard so many stags roaring that night, so I’m pretty thankful we had already learned what that noise was! After the farms, we did our last climb of the TA up to Bald Hill, where people sometimes get views of Bluff and of Stewart Island beyond. We saw as far as the long, curved beach that we’d soon walk from Riverton to Invercargill, but the wind was picking up and the clouds were rolling in quickly. As we continued along the ridge in and out of the forest, we walked right into a cloud – cold wind, sideways rain, no views. We had a muddy descent down to Martin’s hut. This was probably the shittiest hut we’d stayed in (the trail notes like to call huts like this “historic”), but I think I was the most thankful I’d ever been to get into a hut, at least in a long time! Ben started a fire… finally… sort of… with the rotting wood, and we ate our backpacker meals while listening to the rain, and also watching the rain through the holes in the walls.
The next day was a long, muddy slog through Longwood Forest until we finally got to Colac Bay, a tiny town with a tavern and holiday park. We got a room, had showers, did laundry, and hung out with the locals in the tavern. We had the best burger we’d had so far in New Zealand, and had shots of slow-roasted plums in vodka (“the 2016 edition”) that one of the locals brought in.
Beach walkin‘ – our second to last day was mostly beach walking. Our first beach walk turned out to be more challenging than we thought, as it was a mix of rocky beach and farm track up and over bluffs. We made it to Riverton in time for a delicious brunch before getting back on beach for 22 kilometers. This section was the hard-packed sand we are more used to, and we kept a good pace. We really had a beautiful day for it! We had heard of a hiker just ahead of us on trail, and on the beach we started to see some fairly fresh footprints (Altras!). We finally caught up with Mik from Canada just about 7 km out from Invercargill. I was so thankful for some fresh conversation to pass those last tired Ks (45k day!) and it was fun to know that we’d have someone to finish with! We stayed that night at the holiday park near the city center, and enjoyed some beer and Indian takeaways to fuel us for our last day.
The most anticlimactic way to finish a trail – seriously, the end of the TA kind of sucked, but I’ll get to that.
We started our day running a few errands in Invercargill, including an attempt to order some new glasses and contacts from a store there. Turns out, they had to squeeze me in for an eye appointment, so I did that to kick off my last day on trail…
So we finally got on the road around 11 am, which left Invercargill on the estuary walkway. This started nice, and the intention is certainly nice, but the walkway soon took us around the city’s sewage treatment plant (seriously, what’s with making us walk by sewage treatment plants? this was the third one since Auckland!) then around the 2nd smelliest farm area I’ve smelled in NZ. Then, we got on the highway and walked 16km. along the highway. With so much truck traffic. At any other point on the trail, this is a highway section we’d most likely hitchhike, but we couldn’t do that with just 20k to go! So on we walked… along the shoulder of the road unless, ducking into the ditch anytime a truck came barreling by… which was a lot — we realized later that they were loading a freighter in Bluff that afternoon.
Then the final 7km were supposed to be along a walking track around the bluff, but we got there to find out the track was closed, due to bulls. We’ve walked by plenty of bulls, but we figured there had to be something extra angry about these bulls if they closed the track for them… and getting chased by angry bulls would really be the actual worst way to finish a trail… So we walked the shorter way around, through town. At least it also took us by the bottle shop, so we picked up a couple of beers to toast at the end!
So overall, the end of the trail wasn’t spectacular, or really pleasant at all, but it was appropriate. We didn’t walk that day for the pleasure of walking, we did it out of grit and determination, which was exactly what got us through many of the tough sections and rough days up to that point. I guess no one ever said that reaching the “goal” is always the most glamorous part.
The very end was a shinning star, though: after walking through town, we were greeted at Stirling Point by the amazing Mik and a bottle of Prosecco! We celebrated, took photos, and sat at the southern terminus of the TA talking about the trail and about what we’re supposed to do next.
And then we saw Stewart Island, about 35 km South across the water and reckoned we weren’t quite finished…
We stayed the next 5 nights at the Bluff Lodge, in a queen bed with proper sheets, pillows, and blankets, and towels.
The day after the trail, I forbade Ben to plan or to talk about hiking. We did nothing besides cook and eat good food and watch the Simpsons on VHS.
After that we started to plan our trip to Stewart Island, and on the 3rd day we ventured to Invercargill to spend some time and get supplies. On the 4th day, we welcomed our friend Markus to Bluff and walked with him to the finish!
And on the 5th day, we hopped on a ferry to explore island #3!
tramps, treks, and travels 