Day 1 - Bluff to Invercargill - 39km, 7.5 hours

I'm a night owl, a habit that was reinforced by years of studying late at night, and has been hard to break out of.
So enforced early morning rises with the dawn light streaming through the tent walls or through hut windows will be interesting.  To be truthful I'm quite looking forward to the opportunity to break out of not feeling the need to sleep until the small hours.  Certainly I'm expecting to be tired enough much of the time to have no issues getting to sleep earlier.
In any case today I had an opportunity to preview how that might all go with a 5.45am alarm call to catch a 6.30 bus to Bluff. Alas, this was all to no avail, with the bus company forgetting to actually pick me up, then promising me a bus close to lunch time, which would have me trudging back into Invercargill about 9pm. Some scrambling around was done, alternative plans put in place, and I wound up in Bluff an hour or two later than anticipated.

On the upside, while waiting for the bus I discovered my hotel abuts Pork Pie Lane. I know that movie finished down here, but I'm wondering if that actual lane is featured in the movie, or it's just Tim Shadbolt with some of his clever marketing. [Edit. The new pork pie movie ended with the car being burnt out here]

Having made Stirling Point I set off West around the bottom of Bluff Hill. Within 200 meters there was a track haring off up the hill, which I gave serious consideration to, before deciding it wouldn't do to go off the trail literally within a couple of minutes of starting.

Bluff Hill is gorgeous! It's a volcanic isthmus jutting out from the mainland, and as such can be easily blocked off to predators. There has been an extensive trapping program to support this, with spectacular results. Bird life such as rarely seen on the mainland, most especially tui, one of my favourite birds.

I had been surprised to see the bush, given the exposure to southerlies that must occur on such a promonentry, and sure enough the bush soon gave way to scrub to sea level - the hill itself must have been sheltering the bush further east.

The tide was ripping out of Bluff harbour spectacularly close to the shore and, given I will shortly be leaving the sea behind for 1200km, I stopped to watch - not the place for a swim though!

Shortly hereafter was my second rude surprise for the day, with the coastal route closed (it was listed as such on the TA website, but I had forgotten). I wasn't particularly displeased by this, it gave me the opportunity to climb Bluff Hill after all, a short, sharp climb of 250m. As I suspected spectacular views were to be had at the top, along with a family of Sydney-siders arguing over which way North was (for the record, the dad was 180 degrees in the wrong direction).


Dropping down over the other side of the hill, I stopped in Bluff itself for an iceblock, before motoring (not literally I should stress!) off along the dreaded SH1, trying to make up the extra 3km the detour over the hill had added to an already long day.

I ended up spending most of the day walking SH1. Every minute or two a logging truck would whiz past within meters at 100km/h.  Although there was often a makeshift trail beside the road, I was pleased I had brought a highvis vest specifically for this section.

After 10km I started developing hotspots on my feet, more of the blister kind than the wireless internet kind (sorry - dad joke) so stopped to strap my feet. It was here that I had a pleasant surprise when another NOBO (te araroa northbound Walker, a SOBO is of course southbound) sauntered up. We chatted while I strapped. It turns out she had been on the 6:30 bus that had missed me, along with another NOBO who had disappeared up the road and was presumably half way back to Invercargill by now (Post walk note: I subsequently found out this person was Neil, of whom you will read much more on this blog - we ended up walking at least half of the South Island together). Valuable information, as it gives some indication as to how busy the huts may be further on.
Continuing on we walked together for awhile. I obliged by taking photos of her with sheep (She was  Cornish, I thought they had sheep there?). In any case we split after awhile as she took photos of yet more sheep, and I was soon well up the road ahead.

The whole Bluff to Invercargill section didn't provide a lot of shade. Actually scratch that. Provided no shade, and with the day heating up I was forced to soldier on with no breaks. This resulted in good progress, and when I was eventually forced to stop for lunch I had covered 18km in 4 hours walking, including over Bluff Hill.

There was little else of interest along the state highway, apart from one exceedingly narrow rail overbridge, which I reccied carefully before running over, grateful of my small day pack.

Eventually all bad things must come to an end, and I ducked off onto an estuary walkway close to Invercargill, where at least I was off the road, but at this point the day really started heating up, and probably got close to 30.


Coming into the outskirts of Invercargill I found my first tree since Bluff Hill and collapsed gratefully into its shade for some R&R.
At this point Karen called - I really enjoyed the normality of chatting like I was home and made a mental note to always have my cell off flight mode when in coverage. She presented the excellent idea of going back to my hotel via the Invercargill pool.

Post swim a 1km jaunt saw me back where I started the day, at the Grand.

Back home the boys and I often go dirt kart racing. This is awesome fun, but every time we go the fastest lap always comes in the first lap or two because they haven't had a chance to turn the water on yet which sends the karts into sideways powerslides.  My first day on TA has been rather the same. No pack, road walking and sand shoes had seen me cover an amazing 39km in 7.5 hours, a rate unlikely to be repeated for the remainder of my walk, given a good tramping speed is 3km/h.


Interesting facts for the day:
Road kill count 7
Discarded fishing gloves on roadside count 5.