Day 16 - Taipo Hut to Lake Wakatipu > Queenstown, 24km, 7 hours 13 minutes

Eli & I enjoying a view of the magnificent Greenstone River

With a biggish day ahead of us, it was another's relatively early morning. We awoke to find snow to low levels, not far above the hut.



The day started with a traverse to a saddle that would drop us down into the Greenstone Valley. We had two routes to choose between, a high one and a low one. Generally when faced with such a choice it's a good idea to pick one then stick to it. We prevaricated between whichever route was looking easiest at the time (the two were only separated by a couple of hundred meters) and so ended up zig-zagging all over the saddle. I'm pretty sure on the GPS breadcrumb trail we'll look drunk.



In any case, we eventually settled on the high route, which took us away from the bog of the lower route, and into some lovely forest as we dropped down Pass Burn towards the Greenstone Valley.



We entered the Greenstone Valley at a magnificent intersection of 3 valleys, not far from the Greenstone Hut.




And so to the hut itself where we had an early lunch. It's a 20 bunker of great walk quality, and a permanent DOC warden in attendance.


The afternoon was a pretty easy burn following the Greenstone River to Lake Wakatipu. Stephen's feet were really suffering again, so he and Eli took to running it.


We were about half way out when we ran into my friends, Hamish and Janine, who had kindly offered to pick us up from the trail head, and even more kindly have been putting me up (or is that, putting up with me?) for the past few days.


A swim in the chilly Greenstone River, a coffee and a beer on the way to Glenorchy, then a burger in Queenstown rounded out an excellent section of walking.

Thanks to Stephen & Eli for coming along, and Hamish and Janine for their hospitality.

Having Stephen and Eli has really helped on this difficult leg, but to be honest it's still difficult to believe that Caleb isn't around to enjoy it with us.

Day 15 - Carey's Hut to Taipo Hut, 18.3km, 5 hours 30 minutes

Looking up the Mararoa Valley, with the Greenstone Valley at the far end.

We awoke to a squally day, a weather pattern that would endure throughout the day. Eli had lost some billtong to the mice in the night, but not enough to stop him continuing to eat it today.

There was a short early climb before arriving onto flats above the lake. This didn't last for long before we bid farewell to the beautiful Lakes Mavora with a Caleb pose.

The route then opened out into a stunning river valley, the Mararoa, which we followed for the rest of the day. We quickly happened upon a hut which we stopped at for morning tea.

Continuing on, the valley opened out into one of those huge, wide, glacier carved valley's that this part of the country is well known for, similar in many ways to the better known Matukituki valley.

Stephen's feet have been going better today, and Eli hasn't experienced any ill affects at all.


... and so to Taipo Hut. There's a really good swimming hole here, but with the weather I'm not enthused to use it, alas.



The hut is bang on the 300km mark, so another milestone, and now only a 1000km to go!

Once in the hut I noticed that my pack had suffered another breakage, this one more serious, with the whole top of the internal frame breaking and coming away. It won't stop me getting to Queenstown tomorrow, but will probably mean an extra day in Queenstown while I get a suitable replacement.

Week 2 summary

6 walking days, 1 resting day, not counting a 4 night hiatus in Te Anau.
112km covered this week, much less than the previous week. A little less but actually pretty close to what I want to do longer term.

The Takitimus and Mavora Lakes were both exceedingly beautiful in different ways, and both had ample water, so the water issues are resolved.

I've still only had a need for 2 Voltaren this week, so my back continues to perform beyond expectations.

I'm still managing my feet carefully, but the blister issues of the first week have dissipated somewhat for now.

The next week sees the completion of the route to Queenstown, possibly as far as Wanaka.

Day 14 - Mavora Lakes campsite to Carey's Hut, 9.77km, 2 hours 30 minutes

A nice easy day today, probably the shortest of the whole trail, skoodling along the bank of North Mavora Lake to a hut at the far end of the lake.



The afternoon was spent between playing cards, swimming in the lake, and chatting to the other hut residents.



The hut is nice, in a rustic kind of way, with a complement of mice, and a fire plastered with a warning not to use it (not that there is any firewood available anyway)

Late in the day I had a pleasent surprise as Neil turned up, having caught up after a day longer in Te Anau. This left 7 in a 6 person hut, later augmented to 9 as two others turned up as well, so it will be a cozy night tonight. Stephen, Eli and myself are sharing 2 bunks.

Day 13 - Kiwi Burn Hut to North Mavora lake campsite, 17.2km, 5 hours 50 minutes

With a shorter day in prospect there was a bit of a sleep in today, and a lot of mucking around. We probably weren't on track until 10:30.

Stephen's feet were still suffering, and with a tight calf now to go with it we made slow, deliberate progress to minimize any further damage. Fortunately Elijah seems in good nick with no particular issues. He has fastidiously been keeping up his stretches to minimize the possibility of his Severs Disease playing up.

We spent most of the day following the Upper Mavora River. As we approached South Mavora Lake the river became quite spectacular.
First there were some fearsome looking rapids, bigger than just about anything I've seen in the South Island, and to me somewhat reminiscent of the rapids above the Hooker falls on the Waikato River (albeit with less flow, obviously).

Further on still, and now quite close to the lake, the river still had a fast current, but was now deep and clear. It looked like it would be a trout fishing mecca.



... and so to South Mavora lake, a thing of beauty, for a very late lunch. I wasted no time in quickly jumping in where the Mavora River flows out, although care was required, there is quite some current.



Stephen and Eli took the opportunity of exiting via a swing bridge to the Mavora road, and hitching the 6km up to North Mavora lake to save Stephen's feet. I carried on along South Mavora lake and found the going very easy, knocking the distance off in under an hour.



After some confusion after we set up different camps at each end of the kilometer long camping ground, we eventually found each other and settled down for the evening, but not before popping into the lake for a quick swim.



Both lakes are exceedingly beautiful. Camping here would be amazing!

 We are pitched within meters of a Lord of the Rings site - if you're familiar with the films, where Frodo and Sam leave the fellowship by rowing across a river, after having hidden in the trees from orcs. Interesting stuff!


Two more short days in store. I'm really looking forward to enjoying the lake some more tomorrow.

Day 12 - Te Anau > Mavora Lakes turnoff to Kiwi Burn Hut, 27.5km, 8 hours 30 minutes

This section through to Queenstown was intended to be walked with my cousin, Caleb. With his tragic death just days before coming away on this walk, this part of the trail was always going to be extremely difficult for me. However my brother, Stephen; and son, Eli, have stepped up and joined me for this section in Caleb's sted. It's not going to stop things being painful, that's for sure, but it's going to be much better than mucking through it by myself. I'm very grateful to Stephen and Eli helping me out like this.

In a sense Caleb came along in spirit - Stephen brought along Caleb's bottle of excellent single malt whiskey with a couple of swigs in the bottom, which we polished off in Te Anau over reminisces of our life with him, and regrets over his lost future. We've decided that tramping together without Caleb will always hold regrets for us, as being a time when he would likely be out enjoying the experience with us. We need to find a way to embrace that and make it a positive thing, rather than dwelling on it. I'm currently thinking about always tramping with nips of that same whiskey with Stephen so we can have a tot together once the day is done.

To the walking.
We had an early morning fright when Eli, who had tweaked his ankle, found it unimproved in the morning, with him barely able to put weight on the foot. Amidst panicked arrangements to try to get Eli home to Christchurch while simultaneously rearranging track transport, I sent Eli for a 15 minute stroll to try to walk it off. He came back declaring it good, be so the trip was back on as originally planned.


Once on the trail, actually a long shingle road into the Mavora Lakes, and having dodged a nutty school bus driver who took the turnoff corner near on 2 wheels before slamming his brakes on hard and skidding to a halt beside us (I presume he doesn't like walkers using 'his' road), we started off at a good pace.
With 4 days rest, and 10 days food on board (5 days each for Eli and myself), my pack felt heavy at first, but quickly settled down to feel somewhat normal.

With snow down to low levels on the mountains we were walking towards we experienced cold winds throughout the day - not unpleasantly cold generally, but certainly enough that my long sleeved merino stayed zipped up most of the day.

It has been cold enough in Te Anau recently that I nixed plans to send some of my warm clothing home, preferring to hold onto it until at least Queenstown.

For morning tea I pulled out a Boston bun as a surprise. It had turned into a Squashton bun (no surprise there I guess), but was no less edible for all that.

It was another 50/50 day weather wise, but this time it never really settled into any pattern, with a few light showers at times, but generally excellent walking conditions.



It was easy walking as we approached the mountains, clearing off the road from time to time as a vehicle came along, but not very exciting, so few photos to worry about clogging up memory cards today.

At lunch time I had a bit of a rude shock. I did a boil up for lunch, but it turns out Eli had brought no eating utensils; plate, bowl, cup, spork. Nothing. Fortunately we can share my cup and pot (which is also my bowl) without too many problems, and I happened to bring a spare spork, realising it would be a real issue if I lost mine.


It has been, and continues to be, my plan to walk every step of the South Island's length. However I realised over lunch I may have made a mistake. When I walked down to the Mavora turn off after coming out of the Takitimus, I never crossed the road to where we were dropped off this morning. So I've missed about a 10 meter section, the width of State Highway 94. A small enough mistake I'm not going to beat myself up over it.

It was my intention to lower the kilometers we did per day through here to give Eli, unused to long distance tramping, an easier time. However as we approached the area I'd picked out on the map where we'd start looking for a campsite, both Stephen & Elijah were keen to push on to the hut, at least another 8km further on.

I had walked the whole day in sandals, and was feeling fine, feet in no worse condition than the start of  the day. Conversely Stephen's feet suffered from the gravel walking, especially through this last part of the day.

He soldiered on however, and eventually we came to where the Mavora River needed to be forded to get to the hut. I had spied what I took to be a fisherman's access from the road. Reaching this turnoff I sauntered off a couple of hundred meters towards the river, only to be surprised when I came into a farmyard, complete with farmer. Apologising for barging onto his land, I was relieved when he readily acceded to my request to complete our crossing to the river.

The river was in high flow, but looked OK. Gratifyingly, mountains of didymo were being washed downstream, although with the prodigious amounts still holding onto the rocks of the river bed I would imagine it will take a serious flood to somewhat clean the river out after this dry, low flow summer. We took the precaution of linking up with packs unclipped - the flow was fast and to the bottom of our shorts - it would not have taken too much more water to have made the river not crossable in safety.

There followed a kilometer or two of easy bush travel. Stephen's feet were really suffering by now, and he went bare foot with gaiters for the last section, an interesting combination.


Fortunately it didn't take much of this before arriving at the Kiwi Burn Hut, our destination for the night, after a not at all shorter day.

Never mind, it will make for some very short days as we go through the lakes, so hopefully gone Stephen's feet time to recover once off gravel roads.


The hut is very agreeable and we have the somewhat unexpected pleasure of having it to ourselves. It has a nice little pot belly stove, which, given the rain and temperature, we've fired up for the evening - it has a tiny firebox so will be difficult to keep going for any length of time.

The day ended with some more pack repair. I'd overfilled one of my outer accessible sections, and the thread had started coming away. I must remember to get some more thread in Queenstown.

A very short day beckons tomorrow, so I'll be sleeping in as long as the sun allows.

Hiatus in Te Anau

I arrived into te anau feeling exhausted, helped myself to a 2 scoop ice cream while checking into the top 10 for the only thing available - a queen motel room.  After a bit of a rest I pulled myself into town to get a slap up lamb meal at a newly opened Argentinian bbq.   The food was ok, but nothing to write home about, but at least there was enough left over for breakfast.

With accommodation at a premium I donned pack the next morning for the 2km jaunt down the other end of town where I'd booked a single cabin for the next 2 nights.

I wasn't feeling well, and shortly after checking in I found out why, developing the shakes.  Herein followed 24 hours of running a temperature and frequent trips to the loo, with concerns about my ability to walk the next section when Stephen and Eli turned up.

Fortunately however it was a pretty short run thing; a day later I was feeling wiped out, but in recovery enough that I was able to start eating and had a couple of shortish swims in the lake (lake Te Anau being the warmest I'd ever felt it).

Today the rain has set in and I'm having a lazy day, having put the final touches on my resupply, and splashed out on a more suitable inflatable bedroll).  Stephen and Eli turn up in a few hours, so I'll be heading into town shortly to meet them.  Jacket and boots will be required!

Next update will be back from the trail, but you probably won't see it until I'm in Queenstown.  In the mean time Jakob will continue with his excellent work uploading my satellite position.