Nov 19 Oreti beach to Riverton
Away at last! 😎 We caught a taxi to Oreti beach to avoid the boring walk along the road from Invercargill. We ain’t purists! Just going for the adventure and the spectacular scenery. We did offer Dave and Murray the option to walk from Bluff to Invercargill while we waited so they could claim walking the whole way. They declined🚶
The days walk was a long wander along a hard flat beach. This is the beach where Burt Munro would race his Indian Scout motorcycle. (movie – The World’s Fastest Indian)
We picked our start date to match the low tide near midday. This made the beach walking easy, and the first of the many river crossings at Waimatuku stream simple.
Nov 20 Riverton to Round Hill track.
Lots of stiff old joints this morning after 24km along the beach yesterday. Us old farts stayed in a great beach house for the night in Riverton.
Today we headed over the lookout above Riverton then down to the beach. A 20 km day with a lot of road and horrible stony beach walking. The highlight of the day was the ginormous ice cream at the Colac Bay pub. Thoroughly recommend this 🍨.
All up 20km for the day. We camped in the bush tonight as the huts aren’t too good at this end of the track.
Along the way we always meet up with the local “celebrities”. Today it was a guy with a vintage motorbike collection who wanted a hand unloading his 1973 Suzuki 750 triple. In mint condition, 36,000km. He just bought it for $30,000. We also met roast chook man. A local farmer. He told us it was shit where we were going and why would you want to do it. We were also welcome to camp on his farm. He didn’t care as he was going out anyway🤔
Nov 21 Round Hill camp to Longwood camp
Steady climb from our camp up to Turnbulls hut. A lot muddier and slower than expected.
More mud and a long traverse along an old aqueduct from the Gold mining in this area.
Martins Hut is as we remembered it. Basic 4 bunks and not much else.
We needed to make some more miles so we persevered on up to the top of Longwood hill. Spectacular views across to the mountains on the west coast.
Lots of tired old bodies decided to plod along till we found some camp sites in amongst the mud. Cause there is loooots of mud.
Nov 22 Longwood camp to Merrivale Hut
Lots more mud! Really long day over Bald hill and down to the hut at Merrivale. 22kms all up for the day.
The track goes through Longwood Forrest which is really beautiful but muddy.
Merrivale wins the award so far for the worst toilet. 0 out of 10, where 2 is just go in the bush. No seat and it’s own birds nest.
23 Nov Merrivale to Birchwood station.
Long day along access roads through lots of pine forests and farm land. 27 km for the day.
We saw our first SOBO (south bound hobo) today. A Japanese hiker. He had come from Cape Renga at the top of the north island. 3000km all up. Been hiking for 4 months which is an outstanding time. We also found out he had been swept away doing a deep river crossing and lost half his gear😕
Tonight we are staying in the shearers quarters at Birchwood station. Hot shower, wood heater and pizzas for dinner😋😋
We shared the quarters with Max and Bryn. Both NOBOs. Lots of funny stories changed hands. Both of them had issues with their feet and couldn’t continue. 😕
24 Nov Birchwood to Telford camp
We knew this would be a long hard day. 27km through Mt Linton station. It’s an enormous farm that has given permission for the TA walkers to traverse. You are not allowed to camp or deviate from the marked route. Huge paddocks, farm tracks and a lot of sheep and cow poo. Very tiring.
At every farm gate that is shut they have a stile so you don’t have to open them. Gets pretty tiring after scaling them all day with a pack on.
It was also the first real river crossing.
25 Nov Telford camp to Lower Wairaki hut
Blue sky day today. NZ has turned on the good weather. A 600m climb to start the day with spectacular views to snow capped Telford peak (1577m)
Pauline’s new shoes have been giving her grief. The right shoe has a ridge inside the heel box that has caused some serious bruising around her Achilles Tendon. Today she walked in one Crock and one runner which solved the issue. No pain😊 Dave commented he was happy she wasn’t in pain but was concerned that she climbed the 600m ascent faster in crocks than he did in boots!
We still have 35km to go to get to the main road and the bus to Te-Anau. I also recall a lot of mud along this section. So I did some surgery with the pocket knife on the offending shoe. I chopped out the back of the heel box. Pauline tried this out and thinks this will be OK. We will find out tomorrow.
26 Nov Lower Wairaki hut to Aparima hut
The shoe surgery was a success. Pauline is now up to normal speed👍 There is an outdoor shop in Te-Anau where we hope to get some new shoes.
Bit overcast this morning. A cool start with a river crossing. Followed by a gradual climb through beech forrest till lunch.
The afternoon was mostly downhill through more beech forrest till we got to a swamp next to the Aparima River. This was like walking on a grass covered matress for 2km. Eventually we reached the suspension bridge over the river and up to the Aparima Hut.
27 Nov Aparima Hut to Lower Princhester Hut
Cool overcast day to start with. Then we spent the day alternating between grasslands and beech forrest. The grasslands are there because it is too wet for the trees to grow. So you have to watch for mud holes or small creeks as you wade through the waist high grass. Murray disappeared up to his waist in a creek that you couldn’t see until it was too late.
Max who we met at Birchwood passed us early morning. His feet had improved. We also met two girls from the US heading south. One from Boston, the other from Chicago. They had both quit their jobs to come and do Te-Arora. Awesome!
28 and 29 Nov Rest day in Te Anau
We caught the bus from Princhester Rd to Te Anau. Pig out and lounge around for two days. We picked up our food drop from NZ Post and have been shopping for other food. Pauline also found a pair shoes to replace her doctored ones. She won’t be able to wear them till Queenstown once the bruising on her Achilles Tendon has gone down. We have added them to the food drop and posted on to Queenstown.
30 Nov Mavora Lakes to Carey’s hut
Today we played the seniors card. Chartered a bus from Te Anau to the Docs campground at Mavora Lakes. This cuts out about 35km of gravel road walking. So we had an easy day of about 10km😎.
We got to Carey’s hut about 3pm. A few minutes later Max appeared. He had hitched up from the main road to the south lake yesterday.
Later in the day Nigel and Heather appeared. We shared a pleasant evening with them exchanging gear ideas and places to explore.
1 Dec Carey’s hut to Boundry hut
Another Seniors day. Only 6 km. We are dragging it out so we don’t get to Queenstown before our accommodation is available. Also gives our old bodies a rest after the first 9 days.
I have to say we couldn’t have picked are more scenic spot to have a rest day. Spectacular glacial mountains and valley views.
We also met up with Bryn again. Last we saw him was at Birchwood station. He was heading to Invercargill to sort out his feet. He had some new trail runners (Hoka) and had been to a podiatrist. She had helped him with lots of good advice. And now he was back on the trail😊
2 Dec Boundry hut to Taipo hut
Big day today, twice yesterday’s distance 12km. Very picturesque walk along the glacial Valley to Taipo hut.
We had some early showers that cleared by mid morning. The huge storm clouds make a spectacular backdrop to the snow capped peaks around us.
We made the hut just after lunch and settled in reading some old National Geographic magazines. After dinner the weather closed back in so lots of rain and strong winds. Glad to be in a hut for the night.
Hopefully the rivers won’t be up too much tomorrow. There is one crossing between here and Greenstone hut that can be deep.
3 Dec Taipo hut to Greenstone hut
Bucketed rain last night, including some hail. Glad to be in a hut last night. After studying the map we decided to take an alternate route to Greenstone hut. It runs parallel to the TA but on the other side of the valley.
The Far Out App also had some comments that there was a lot of fallen trees on this section of the TA.
Turned out to be a really good decision. The alternate track was through grasslands with great views.
Greenstone hut is big, sleeps 20 people. We shared with a family of four and a SOBO couple in our age group. Picked up some good Intel on the track to the north of here.
Dec 4 Greenstone hut to Greenstone.
Downhill for the morning to the bus pickup at Greenstone. Had to drag Pauline out of bed early to do the 12 km before lunch.
Really picturesque wander through some of the most beautiful beech forrest we have ever seen. Would recommend to anyone to walk the Greenstone – Caples circuit.
The bus picked us up right on time and took us into Queenstown via the Reece – Dart track pickup. So we got a scenic tour around Glenorchy.
Off to the supermarket now so we can pig out 🐷
Civilisation has failed us! Weeks of drinking pure mountain water from whatever stream we pass without an issue. We arrive in Queenstown and have to boil tap water as there is an outbreak of cryptosporidium. 💦
Murray showed off his culinary skills by cooking us an excellent dinner.