Retrospective

I’m now back in Auckland, having made the difficult decision to pull out of my trip early at Queenstown. I had to decide by 19th Dec if I was continuing as my partner had to post food parcels ahead before the last Xmas post that day. I also had hostel bookings that would charge if not cancelled ahead of time. Obviously now that I’m off the trail the previously dire weather forecasts have all changed to fair weather, the river levels are dropping and the predicted gales have not materialised, but I had to go on the information I had on 19th. Frustrated doesn’t even come close!

So what did I learn from my short two weeks that could be useful to anyone? Here’s a summary:

1. Don’t over-plan. If I hadn’t had so many prebooked hostels then I could have spent time waiting for better weather. I thought it would be more difficult to find accommodation at this time of year than it was.

2. Pack warmer things – I realise it was unseasonably cold but still, I needed to buy extra merino tops and long tights. I could probably have carried a warmer sleeping bag too.

3. Trust to serendipity – every time I needed something to happen (mostly a ride), it did.

4. Beware of South Island weather : I had to hike at this time as I’m a teacher and these are my holidays, but for anyone else I would not start SI until at least the end of December – just too variable.

5. Finally, if you think you can do it you probably can. I didn’t freak out alone in mouse-infested creaky huts in the middle of nowhere, I crossed raging mountain streams without dying and 30k in a day was absolutely fine. Go for it!

That’s it for now – no more posts until I hopefully get back on the trail in QT sometime in 2020-21. Hope it was worth reading!

Sarah