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.