Day 30 - Roundhill Ski Area to Royal Hut, 24km, 7 hours 30 minutes

Tenting out last night I was hoping to wait for the next hut 8km away for my ablutions but, when nature calls...
Fortunately there was a rabbit hole ideally placed. No digging required on my part, but no doubt one very shocked rabbit. Never mind, quid pro quo for all the rabbit droppings I've been walking over for the last 4 days.

The walking day started with an easy 5km of picturesque trail...


... before dropping to the Coal River and some fairly slow route finding upstream and an impromptu swim by Neil.


Within 90 minutes we'd made it to Camp Stream Hut, a fantastic little private hut with a large stack of fire wood that would make for a brilliant little weekend destination in from the Roundhill road end. We were only staying for lunch, but the $10 cost of staying there would have been well worth it.


After lunch, like most TA walkers, we left the official trail which followed a valley, instead climbing onto a sublime ridge with magnificent 360 degree views. Only a matter of 20km to the northwest was Aoraki, the other mountains bordering the Grand Plateau and the main divide. Unfortunately on our day this was largely hidden in cloud, but such was the scenery that this hardly detracted from the grandeur of the scene, with 2500+ meter high mountains dotting the landscape at seemingly all angles.

The ridge was some of the easiest climbing on the trail so far, a really easy gradient and took us across the 650km mark on the trail. HALF WAY!!! So momentous that it called for an inter centenary thumbs up.

As always the views kept improving as we climbed. The high point on the whole trail is Stag Saddle at 1950 meters. It seemed a shame to top out just below 2000, and with the newly named Beuzenberg  Peak (named after a Mt Cook guided, deceased on a fall with 2 clients) easily climbable from the ridge at 2070 meters we carried on up. Feeling privileged to stand in such a place I started to reel off photos, none of which really capture the majesty of the place.







Then it was down a long scree slope on the other side of the mountain. We had 700 meters of altitude to lose, and only 4km to the hut to do it in.


The day was bookended by another hour and a half of difficult river route finding. I was getting tired and this section seemed to go on forever.

But we eventually made it to Royal Hut, so named because Prince Charles and Princess Anne were once choppered in here for tea. I think I earned it more!

Day 29 - Lake Tekapo to Roundhill ski area, 26.3km, 6 hours 15 minutes

I was thrilled to get a bed in the backpackers last night. I wasn't quite so thrilled to be in a room full of kiwi experience travellers, none of whom saw the need to turn off the light until after 1am.

So a late start this morning then. With sore feet after days of gravel walking and another 15km of it in prospect for today, I decided to tape the balls of my feet, the first time in weeks that I've needed to.

After breakfast in Tekapo, and having stocked up with bakery goodies for lunch it was time to hit the road.
There isn't much to say about the road walking, we (I say 'we', I'm walking with Neil again) worked our way up the north shore of Lake Tekapo before taking to the hills, the last of the big alpine lakes left behind.


We climbed on a generally easy gradient away from the lake, receiving a very welcome surprise when the low cloud that had obscured the mountains all day started to lift late in the afternoon.

Being treated to phenomenal views it didn't take too much thought to end the day short of the hut that had been our destination, set up camp in a semi sheltered spot beside a nicely bubbling brook, and enjoy the views for the evening.
Tenting at 1100 metres we've probably let ourselves in for a cold night, but the views were worth it!

Week 4 summary

7 days walked, ignoring the long hiatus back home for Jakob's birthday and dodging the weather.

I started the week at Lake Hawea and end at Lake Tekapo about to climb out of thing Mackenzie Country, having covered 172km.

A lot of gravel walking has left me with very sore feet and I still have a few niggles in my legs, but generally I'm in pretty good nick physically. A 4 day break helps in that regard!

The back still does well with minimal voltaren required.

Onward away from the alpine lakes and further into Canterbury!

Day 28 - Lake Pukaki to Lake Tekapo, 35.1km, 7 hours 30 minutes

With a cold morning and me being cosy/lazy in my sleeping bag, it was a latish start to the day, albeit I was on the trail by just after 8.

Having walked to where the trail left Lake Pukaki yesterday, at the Pukaki Power Station.  There was an immediate easy climb away from the lake, following the hydro tunnels that were dropping water down from the Tekapo Canal.


I really enjoyed the first 10km walking. With gravel road to walk, no attention to where my feet were stepping was required, leaving me free to admire the various mountain ranges arrayed in front of me. Having spent a lot of time around Aoraki in recent years I knew the peaks well. I particularly enjoyed the view I had of Mt Tasman (not visible from the environs of Mount Cook Village - it hides in behind Aoraki from that vantage point) and the full extent of (perhaps my favourite mountain) Mount Sefton, with its enormous, glaciated east face.

The recent snows were still apparent, even the Sealy range, home to my favourite climb (but not Jakob's, long story) still had a dusting.

My peaceful reverie was broken somewhat by the horrible whine of a hydrofoil making its way up the lake below me. I guess you can't have everything.

The trail was following an old road along the Tekapo Canal that until comparatively recently was publicly accessible, and in fact back in the day was Karen's and my route of choice between Tekapo and Pukaki, being incomparably more scenic than the state highway.
Having a salmon farm along the canal, the road used to be crammed with fishermen, seeking the enormous trout that always surround salmon farms. The salmon farm is much larger than I remember it used to be, it now stretches for perhaps a couple of kilometres along the canal. Enormous salmon jumping inside the pens, and enormous trout still jump outside of them.


Close to the salmon farm I was pleased to add to my group of curio from this trip, the world's most over engineered gate.



Most of the rest of the day wasn't so interesting, consisting largely of this:

The mountain scape opened up again close to Tekapo, providing distant views of my coming route into the Two Thumb Range.

... and I passed 600km, now within sniffing distance of half way!  By the by I wonder what the sniffing distance is to me?


Lake Tekapo is full to the brim, a result of the recent cyclone no doubt, so water was being spilled into the Tekapo River, a rather rare occurrence.

Arriving in Tekapo, after a lot of walking around town; to the pools, back into town for dinner (where I had a happy meeting and catch up with Neil over a beer) I have collapsed into a dorm at the camping ground. I was pleased to get it, accommodation seems bordering on unobtainable in this town.
I haven't met my room mates yet, but looking at the room I venture to suggest they are young.

Day 27 - Twizel to Lake Pukaki, 23.7km, 5 hours

I started the day with breakfast in Twizel. I've got 10 days food on board, enough to get me to the Rakaia River, but with little provision for emergency food in that calculation, so I figured I may as well eat in town while I could. All that food does have the added penalty of a heavy pack, but with no climbing to be done for a few days, it could be worse!

There is a fair bit of snow on the mountains not yet melted from the weather I dodged coming home a week ago. For it to be still there now this time of year meant it was a fair old dumping. While it's there it could mean some cold winds, so I've packed an extra base layer for the next section.


I started by making my way towards Lake Pukaki. The Twizel River looked to be in high flow and good for swimming, but I wasn't stopping only 20 minutes into my walk.

Most TAers skip or bike this section. But with a cool and pleasant day I was really enjoying the distant mountain vistas early on.  However I hadn't been walking long when the weather closed over the far alps and a strong headwind sprang up. Enjoyment factor somewhat diminished, I soldiered on.

The Mackenzie Country has a massive Wilding pine issue, and it didn't take long for me to encounter them. They're literally from here to Christmas, becoming worse on approach to a pine plantation.


Getting close to Lake Pukaki there were quite a few rabbits living amongst the pines, but then I got the shock of my life when what I initially took to be a large fox darted from the path ahead of me into the trees. It must have been a wild dog, of course, living off the rabbits. I can't say I've seen a wild dog on my tramps before, so this was a first for me.

After morning tea at the Lake Pukaki salmon store (Pepsi and chocolate chip biscuit) I continued on around the end of the lake, then up the northern side, to my campsite just south of the Pukaki power station.

As with seemingly all the other alpine lakes I've passed by, the wind had been in and there is quite the chop on the lake. This hasn't stopped me swimming and it was the same today, with a couple of late afternoon dips.  My campsite is tucked well into a dell.  I'm hoping this will provide some protection as the wind here can be ferocious.

My legs and feet are both quite sore given the rest I've had and the easy day's walk today. I've got 40 odd kilometres to clock off tomorrow, past Tekapo, so it'll be interesting to see how I hold together.

Hiatus 4 - Home! for 4 days

I'd hatched a plan to come home for Jakob's birthday and take the kids by surprise. It just so happened that this coincided with Cyclone Gita coming through, so I managed to dodge some seriously bad weather too.

To give an indication, Neil (who was a few days behind) sent me a snap of what the last saddle coming down towards Lake Ohau looked like post cyclone.

A fair bit different than when I was there only a couple of
days earlier!

Colleen and I rescued a fellow TA walker, Frank, from the weather and we've been putting him up for the last few days. A night in the hot tub is better than one in the snow!


Back to the track today to start walking again tomorrow, Twizel to Te kapo.  It feels weird to be leaving home again so soon.  Hopefully I'll be back in 7-10 days when I get to the larger rivers, Rangitata and Rakaia. 

Day 26 - Lake Middleton to Twizel, 31km, 6 hours 30 minutes

Lake Ohau

Having stayed the night in comfort in Twizel, Colleen dropped me off mid morning back at Lake Middleton, to walk back through to Twizel that day.

The day was marked by flat walking with a progressively spectacular cloudscape. Having a day pack it was easy enough that I ended up running parts of it.


The early going was around the shore of Lake Ohau. This provided interesting views across the lake, to the saddle I had been over yesterday. In the photo below, up the left hand valley.


Eventually the outfrom from the lake, the source of the Ohau River, was reached. Like all the lake outflows in the Mackenzie this is controlled for power generation purposes, part of the think big project of more than a generation ago.


Swims were enjoyed in both the river, and in Lake Ruataniwha, that the river leads to. I particularly enjoyed the swim in the lake, not having waves to deal with for once in this much smaller, man made lake, and having a fine gravel beach to use.

Close to Twizel I was getting some amazing skies, perhaps marking the approach of an ex tropical cyclone over the Alps. Certainly I was pleased to be tucked up in town and not in my tent!

This marks the start of several flat, if not particularly interesting, days as I cross the Mackenzie Country.