Monday 29 January 2018

Week 1 Summary

6 walking days, 1 rest day.
167km covered from Bluff.
That's a much higher average walking distance than I want to maintain long term, but this is largely dictated by the route until the Mavora lakes between Te Anau and Queenstown is reached.  Unfortunately my feet have paid a heavy price, especially in the first few days.
I have found the lack of water in Southland challenging.  Tramping in Canterbury there are streams to help yourself to water from on demand, but here I have tramped entire days without finding any water source.  As someone who sweats a lot tramping, this has been very difficult, especially when climbing.
I've been thrilled with how well my back has done, with only 2 Voltaren consumed on the day after the bush bash into Longwood forest.
The Southland geography had been surprising.  I expected rounded hills, but instead the climbs have been short but sharp.  It seems that unlike further up the country the mountain chains run east-west here, but that could be just my impression, I haven't verified this on a map.  Further north there will be a lot of valley following, here it is more up and down ranges.
The second week sees an adventure into some proper mountains, so I'm really looking forward to that.

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