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!