Much nicer day! Easy walking and running on 4WD tracks for most of the day. Few ups and downs to start then along a wide river valley (not in the river this time) and past A-frame Hut (cute – would be nice to stay but only 4 bunks). Steady grind up to saddle for awesome …
Continue reading “Day 3 of part 4 – Comyn’s Hut to Double Hill Road (17k, 4h)”
Well that was a day! Just a few warnings if you’re planning on doing this section. After the stream crossing as you start uphill, the track disappears into a section of matagouri and Spaniards. The poles also mostly disappear. Just head diagonally uphill (use the TA app) and grit your teeth – eventually you make …
Continue reading “Day 2 of part 4 – Double Hut to Comyn’s Hut (16k, 6.5h!)”
Well it’s January so it must be another section of TA! This time starting at Lake Clearwater. Got a lift in from Geraldine with awesome TA trail angel Mike Brown, and on his suggestion used the Eastern Link Track to join up with TA route as an alternative to starting at Potts River. Great choice …
Continue reading “Day 1 of Part 4 (Lake Clearwater to Double Hut) 32k 6h”
Out to Mesopotamia. A pretty steady 20k morning, starting with around 10k of Forest Creek. This involved a bit of crossing and recrossing the braids of the creek – not always obvious from the map which side it was better to be on. In some places the current was fairly strong but it never got …
Continue reading “Day 3 of part 3 – Forest Creek wild camp to Mesopotamia”
The long one…. Up and out by 8 to attack Stag Saddle. Easy start on 4WD track but then tussock bashing up onto the ridge, where I picked up a rough trod along the tops, going pole to orange pole. Not always that obvious but as it was a ridge line you couldn’t go that …
Continue reading “Day 2 of part 3 – Camp Stream to Forest Creek”
Back on the trail! Only a very short section this time due to work commitments, just over the Two Thumb range from Tekapo. Arrived via Intercity in blazing sun to find that my idyllic Lakefront backpackers (1.5k out of town)was now in the centre of a gravel wasteland where a new subdivision was being built. …
Continue reading “Day 1 of Part 3 – Tekapo to Camp Stream hut”
This is it – the end of the trip (for now anyway). One last push to Twizel. It felt a bit odd to be in a whole room to myself, in an actual bed, with my own bathroom. To be honest I got a bit hut-homesick and pulled out my sleeping bag to snuggle! Dinner …
Well this was it – the day of doom. The Big One. Martha’s Saddle (1700m), the crossing of the mighty Ahuriri and a 31k day ending either at a derelict hut or a bivvy bag in the bush. Gulp! Actually it was all a bit of an anticlimax. The saddle, although hard work, was all …
Continue reading “Day 7 part 2 : Top Timaru to East Ahuriri hut”
Another day of two halves – woken by howling winds (SO glad I found this hut!). Whole morning of steadily climbing up the top of the East Ahuriri valley (once again DOC appear to have been on a money saving drive with the orange poles…) to the saddle. Winds up there were so strong I …
Continue reading “Day 8 part 2 : East Ahuriri hut to Lake Ohau Lodge”
So this was the day ( well, one of them) that I’ve been having cold sweats about since Bluff. Vertical slog across slips and broken trees down to the Timaru river, then sidles, climbs and dodgy river crossings for about 8h. Well it wasn’t quite like that. Admittedly the route down to the river started …
Only running the downhills...