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.