Day 11 - Aparima Hut To Mavora Lakes Turnoff > Te Anau, 25.5km, 8 Hours

The Takitimu's are a beautiful mountain range.  The TA traverses a spectacular basin before exiting to the Te Anau road.

Well the mind worm song guy had a new number in his head this morning, "Be my, be my baby". hmmmm.

I was itching to get into Te Anau so made another early start.  Normally when I'm tramping I get a craving for steak and chips, but I haven't really had any food hankerings yet, except maybe for a fresh apricot.  Be that as it may, food is definitely the default conversation piece around the huts at night.  All that to say, I'm not itching to get into Te Anau to have a feed (although I'll certainly be doing that), more to ring home and have a decent conversation.

To the tramping.  In short, a phenomenal day, one of the most enjoyable I've ever had.  The Takitimu mountains are a hidden gem!  Difficult to get into, but spectacularly beautiful and worth the effort.

The day started misty but cleared just as I dropped into an enormous cirque, surrounded by mountains on all sides.  It truly felt like a natural coliseum.  Every couple of minutes of walking would open up some superlative new view, to the point where it felt I was spending as much time photographing as walking.



The morning's walk consisted of traversing this cirque and was pretty easy going, tussock country mixed with some forest sections, with a bit of route finding thrown in for some fun.  I would imagine in a standard year this could actually be a very difficult route of an extremely boggy nature, but in this very dry summer it was no more than moderately challenging.  The trick was to go slow to be fast, often pausing to survey the best route ahead.

From time to time I managed to escape the chest high tussock onto mossy sections, normally easy walking, but this was so thick it was like walking on a trampoline.  Still easier than the tussock though!


The roar isn't supposed to start for a bit yet, bit I could hear plenty of stags letting go as I walked.  I can see why this area is popular with hunters!

One was used as a very effective arrow.


After 4 hours and 12km of some of the most glorious walking I've ever had, I started to climb out of the cirque towards Princhester Saddle.  Tough going!  1.5km covered in the next 90 minutes.  Spiders must love this forest.  The kayaking couple had left before me, so I wasn't first on track for the day, but I was still getting a faceful of spider web every 2-3 minutes.  Meeting a SOBO going the other way it was the first thing she mentioned too.

After some time negotiating the often treacherous route down from the saddle, and still seemingly deep in the bush, I heard the glorious sound of sheep bleating, the signal that the end of the track was nigh.

A very nice hut, Lower Princhester, sits at the trailhead, accompanied by a very pretty stream.  It'd be a fantastic place to spend the weekend if you lived close by.

From here there was an easy 6km road walk out to the main Te Anau Rd, which if nothing else provided a good view of the saddle I'd just come over.

... and the novelty of the world's most useless cattle stop.

Once on the Te Anau road I opted for an extra 3km along to the Mavora Lakes turnoff, where the next section would be starting from.  No point making Stephen and Eli, who will be joining me for Te Anau through to Queenstown, walk that bit.

Waiting for the bus at the crossroads was not a pleasent experience.  90 minutes in 30+ degree heat with not even a hint of shade.  At least it gave me the chance to go full tourist again when the local farm decided to do a sheep drive right across the crossroad in front of me, something I remember happening all the time while on holiday as a kid, but it seems you hardly see now.

I'm now into a 4 day hiatus in Te Anau, back on the trail on the 2nd of February, for 5 days through the Mavora lakes to Queenstown.