Wanaka to Te Anau

From Wanaka we commenced the Motatapu Alpine Track starting the first day at 530 pm and walked up to Fern Burn Hut. It took us 2 and half hours but that was going hard because we didn't want to arrive at the hut too late and it was a stinking hot day so sucked back lots of water. It was a nice walk up through bush and then out into tussock again. We hadn't been in bush for a while.
All the huts on this track are new and warm.
The next day was a hard day. Long and arduous.  We went from Fern Burn Hut to Rose Hut in one day which involved 3 climbs and descents to 950mtres. The track was not technical just exhausting. We got some great views but also a lot of fog in places. It felt like the Tararuas again! And we were lucky that it wasn't cold.
The next day we walked into Arrowtown from Rose Hut which again involved a climb up and over Rose Saddle and then down and along the river bed to Macetown. We had no views as the fog was really close. Macetown is an old abandoned mining town with some old buildings still standing so we had a good look around there. After that I had had enough climbing so we decided to walk the 4 wheel drive track back to Arrowtown with lots of river crossings.
We arrived at Arrowtown and turned on our phone to the news that Sam was unwell in hospital having appendix removed. So after getting reassurance that at that stage he was OK we had a beer at the New Orleans Bar in Arrowtown and then walked on towards Queenstown. We got a ride about 6 km short of Queenstown and dropped off  at Frankton. Wayne 's sister Catherine and brother in law Pete have a holiday place there so we spent 2 nights with them. It was lovely to catch up with them. They are farming in Winton so we dont see them that often.
Monday we got a shuttle bus out to Glenorchy and round to the start of the Greenstone Track. The weather forecast was for rain which we were hoping would hold off.
The Greenstone Track is an easy beautiful track and that day we did 24km to the Taipo Hut via the Greenstone Hut. After the Greenstone Hut we go on the Mavora Lakes Walkway which isn't as good as the Greenstone Track and yes we got rain some heavy so that part of the trail was very wet and boggy under foot. Because of the rain we had one particularly hard river crossing. It was short but up to my waist and flowing quite fast. Normally it would have been just a stream crossing.
From Taipo Hut, the following day,  we walked to Carey Hut via Boundary Hut which still was quite wet under foot again with one challenging stream crossing which was up from the rain.
Along the way Fabian from Germany caught up with us again. We had met at Hamilton Hut and we had moved in front of him when we went round the two rivers at once and he is walking every step of the trail. So we all stayed at Careys Hut.
It rained heavy in the night and was still raining the next morning. We waited to see if rain was going to stop. We finally decided we would make a move. The reluctance was that there were no more huts for a day or two so would have to set up tent in the rain which sucks. We walked 10 km along a 4 wheel drive track to Mavora Lakes campground. The track was so wet that we spent a lot of time walking through pools of water and it was still raining and cold. We decided to keep on walking to keep warm and try and get a ride out to Mossburn or Te Anau. We had stopped and put on extra clothes and gloves but it was scary how quickly you can get cold and worryingly cold. Our temperature had dropped by the continuous walking in water.  We were extremely lucky to get a ride from some American tourists who took us towards Te Anau and with another ride from some German tourists we made Te Anau cold wet and exhausted. It was still raining.  We had been in hail and cold wind. The temperature in Te Anau was 7 degree and there was fresh snow on the mountains.
Today we are having another rest day here in Te Anau. Last night it continued to rain heavily there is snow down to 700 metres and a cold wind temperature today is 6 degree so us hardened trampers are snuggled up inside next to a heater! Tomorrow on the Trail again. We have to climb up to 800 metres in the next few days so that could be interesting!

Lake Tekapo to Wanaka

From Tekapo we hitched out to Twizel and walked out to Lake Ohau to the start of the next leg to Wanaka. Lake Ohau is a beautiful lake that is popular for water sports so saw a few boats and skiers.
We tramped about 12km in on the track and camped beside the stream. Again lots of tussock and river crossings. The weather was really hot and sunny. After that we had a huge day in the hot dry exposed plains of Canterbury with a big river crossing of the Ahuriri River. We walked across farmland that had a few bits of tussock a million rabbit holes and dry barren dirt. We didn't even see rabbits. We then started the Breast Hill Track which climbs up to the Mt Martha Saddle on an old 4 wheel drive track.  This was the first time we have had difficulty getting water. We have always had a rule of not collecting water anywhere there are cattle or sheep and we had to walk 10 km in the hot hot sun before we could safely take water from the streams. Wayno ' s heel was playing up again so we made camp about 2km from the top of the saddle at the best spot we could find as there weren't many flat spots up there. The next day we walked only 10 km to Top Timaru Hut to give Wayne's heel a rest and from all accounts the following day was pretty tough. The trail from here to Stodys Hut was good for most parts except the last 2km was straight up and hard work. I kept thinking I wonder at what point your heart goes that's enough! Then Wayno who was leading lost the track and took me up some vertical scree and I got stuck and couldn't move. He had to drop his pack and come back for me. I survived lol! We made it to Stodys Hut for lunch and carried on to Pakituhi Hut for the night. Wayno's heel still was hurting him and he needing to take regular pain relief to get through the days.
Lo and behold who else arrives at Pakituhi Hut from the other direction but David Hobbs who we had met twice before. NZ is definitely a small place. That night at Pakituhi Hut we had a small earthquake which woke me up. The next day was a 4 km descent to Lake Hawea and it was 950mtres virtually straight down. It was very steep and narley in other words steep and scary. Downhill is my weakness and am pretty slow but we made it ok and had a lovely swim in Lake Hawea at the bottom. We walked into Lake Hawea and stopped at the coffee shop there for lunch. Great place great food nice staff and anyone on the Trail can easily refuel there. They have just about everything you need. We got a ride into Wanaka from a lovely lady Judy whose husband is doing the Trail in sections and she was biding time while he was on the Motatapu Alpine track.
We booked into a backpackers at Wanaka across the road from an Irish Bar which was dumb as they partied all night.  We hired mountain bikes the next day and biked back out to Lake Hawea and then cycled the TA Trail to Wanaka along the river banks and lakeshore which was lovely.
We then met up with Judy again and met her husband Geoff who had enjoyed the Motatapu Alpine track which was where we were going next. These lovely people dropped us at the entrance to the track at 530 that evening.

Arthurs Pass to Lake Tekapo

From Arthurs Pass we crossed the Cass Lagoon Saddle. It was like a different country. We went from raining to beautiful clear sky and hot weather. The first day we walked to Hamilton Hut. The track was through lovely bush with a few river crossings. We met with lots of trampers doing weekend tramps and all very friendly and chatted with them all. Hamilton Hut was great with 14 of us that night. Lots of tramping stories with the local Cantabrians who were all very knowledgeable about their area. Had to take a photo of Hamilton Hut with Hamilton being my maiden name lol.
The next day was out to Lake Coleridge which was a pretty big day with lots of hot road walking.  We managed to get a ride halfway down Harper Road to Lake Coleridge to pick up a food parcel we had sent there then out to Methven to get extra supplies and then all the way back to Rakaia Gorge with the same people which was great as on the back metal roads there is minimal traffic.
We stayed at Rakaia Gorge Campground which was a great campground overlooking the Rakaia River with beautiful views and cost only  $8.50 each with kitchen and hot showers.
After that we made the decision to go straight to the other side of the Rangitata River and miss the two nights in the middle. We are not able to cross the Rakaia and have to go round which involves trying to either hitch on back roads or $120 for the shuttle then 2 days later we would reach the Rangitata River which if low we could cross but if high it would involve the whole hitch or shuttle around on more remote metal roads about 140 km. We had been advised to check environment Canterbury website for river flows and found the Rangitata to be double the flow for safe crossing so with my short legs made the decision to just go round both Rakaia and Rangitata in one.
We got a ride from a nice lady from Oxford who took us to the turn off to Peel Forest and then got a ride up a further 15km then walked on metal road for about 15 km and got a ride with some lovely gentlemen going up the valley to work on a hut up there. They didn't have room in there car but offered us to sit on their trailer which we gratefully accepted knowing how it would be our one and only chance of a ride as it still was a further 30km and only one farm at the end of the road.  They knew exactly where we wanted to go and dropped us at the entrance of the Two Thumb Track. It had just started to rain and they even checked out our raincoats to make sure we were well prepared lol.
We managed to get up to Crooked Spur Hut up the valley with lots of boulder hopping and river crossings. Crooked Spur hut has a spectacular view out down the valley to the Rangitata especially from the loo lol. We met up with an English couple Angie and Phil who were doing the Trail as well and they have just completed the Pacific Crest Trail in America. They say this long hiking is addictive!
The following day we hiked from Crooked Spur hut to Royal Hut via a lot of tussock, valleys and stream crossings with a lot of swampy parts and the trail wasn't that clear.
We were in bed and asleep at 930pm when in clatters another tramper and made hell of a racket sorting himself out and cooking dinner. Arriving at huts after dark should be banned!
The next day for us was one of the highlights of the whole Trail. We climbed up to Stag Saddle the highest point of the Te Araroa Trail and then scrambled scarily across some scree to a ridge where we had spectacular views of Lake Tekapo and the Alps. We walked all the way down a long ridge to stay at Camp Stream Hut a cute 4 bunk hut  built in 1897.
The next day we walked out to Lake Tekapo township a long hot day on a very exposed dry barren boring track followed by a long metal road walk.
We reached Lake Tekapo town and had trouble finding accommodation and ended up in a backpackers in a shared room with no windows! Just about did my head in without fresh air. Most of the backcountry huts have lots of gaps in the walls so lots of natural ventilation!  Lake Tekapo was not very nice.  A lot of rude selfish unfriendly tourists we found there. We stayed 2 nights and even saw a physical punch up between mother and daughter on the idillic lakeshore -get us out of here!
The next section of the trail involved 56km of metal road walking and Wayno has been getting severe pain in his heel so we hired some mountain bikes and did 80k rest day on that section on bikes. We  cycled out on Braemar Road past the Army Camp to Lake Pukaki down the edge of Pukaki then back to Lake Tekapo on the canels. It was a long hot day again with no shade and after 80k cycling I was exhausted.  As we were cycling along a car pulled up coming the other way and the driver said "I know you you are Wayno and Di ". It was David Hobbs who we had met on our walk into Hamilton Hut after Arthurs Pass. Small world. It was great to chat to him again. He is doing the trail in sections and follows everyone's progress.