Queenstown to Bluff
27-Jan
The Te Araroa starts on the other side of lake Wakatipu. So we had a cushy ride in a 4×4 around the lake that got us away from most of the tourists in Queenstown. After a quick lunch we set off for Greenstone hut. 15km and 3-5 hours away. It’s the best maintained track we had been on since the Queen Charlotte track.
Great 20 bed hut. Only 6 of us in the hut for the night, and all old farts like us. Peaceful night.
28-Jan
It bucketed rain overnight, 100mm in 6hrs. The ranger warned us to be careful at Pass Creek as it would be running high. We picked a good spot to ford, below crutch depth.
Lots of trees, mud and roots later we arrived at Taipo hut for lunch.
Then on to Boundary Hut for the night. 21km for the day. We thought the hut was full as there were six or seven tents already up. These turned out to be a group of eight NOBOs so we got a bed for the night🤗.
29-Jan
The other two guys in the hut were hunters, Dan and Bluey. They got two geese the day before. No deer though. They are now our bestest friends. We managed to scavenge a ride with them out to the highway. Saved us 57km of walking on gravel roads through farmland. Pauline is a Very happy camper 😜 It would have taken us three days to walk this. To top it off we got to the highway about 30 minutes before the bus to Te-Anau came through. We manage to flag it down and we are now eating our way through the Fresh Choice supermarket in Te-Anau. Big thanks to Dan and Bluey 👍.
31-Jan
The rest day came to an end, we got the bus back to the TA turn off. Five km of farm road later we arrived at Princhester hut. Met up with three Nobos who were still keen and eager. Visions of walking all the way and not accepting rides, the TA will probably beat that out of them. The terrain going north gets much harder from here on. One of them was going to walk into Te-Anau for resupply, that’s a 60km round trip🙄. The bus for $20 each way was a much better idea!
From Princhester hut we climbed over a saddle and then meandered through beech forest and tussock plains for the rest of the day. 24km all up. Camped in Aparima hut for the night.
1-Feb
Had an easy day from Aparima hut to Lower Wairaki hut. Only 12.8km through beautiful beach forest. Lower Wairaki hut is an old hut with an open fire, very cosy, except the sand flies have worked out how to get in via the chimney. Some duct tape and an old orange pack liner bag later and we were sand fly free for the night 😜.
2-Feb
Another easy day to Telford campsite, only 8km for the day. And only a 500m climb 🤔. Great views from the top! We can finally see the southern ocean off in the distance. Only a few more days to go.
The short days are all part of a plan. The following three days are long ones. Telford camp is pretty exposed and has the dubious reputation of the worst sand flies in NZ.
3-Feb
Today is the first of the big days. 27km on farm tracks through Mt Linton station. It has to be in one go, you are not allowed to camp or stray from the trail across Mt Linton station.
We arrived at Birchwood station at the end of the day. They hire out the shearers quarters to walkers. 10 Beds, shower, chairs with backs 🤗. It was a full house for the night.
4-Feb
Next day and we are off to Merrivale Station where there is a small hut. 28km for the day with two climbs. The owner of Birchwood took pity on the old farts and offered to take our packs up to the top of the first and biggest climb of the day. He was heading that way to round up some sheep.
Lots of pine forrest and farm land later we arrived at Merrivale hut. Full house again. It’s tiny, looked to me like they had refurbished one of the horse sheds in the paddock. Still, it’s OK for us, the wind is howling and expecting rain overnight.
5-Feb
Another early start as we head to Martin’s Hut. 28km again, a couple of climbs and LOTS of mud.
The last few km are across a wide ridge. The wind had picked up by the time we got here. Pauline was blown off her feet a few times. Great views but hard to stop and look. We could see Bluff off in the distance.
We made it to Martin’s hut about 5pm and managed to get a bed! It’s an old hut and needs replacing.
One of the locals who has done the TA is doing Trail Magic out of this hut 😋. An esky out the back had free cans of soda and fruit for TA walkers 👍
6-Feb
Another long day down from Martin’s Hut and along an old water race. Downhill for the day, but 30km all up. We arrived at Colac Bay Tavern and Campground mid afternoon and got two rooms. Closely followed by a huge meal in the tavern.
7-Feb
The next day we made it to Riverton in time for lunch. Great views along the coast. The following day was a long beach walk so we broke it up by heading out and camping in the dunes along the beach.
We made great progress for the day 28km all up. We found a sheltered camp site that looked OK so we set up camp and climbed into bed. Then the trail bikes turned up. Round and round they went till the sun went down 😩.
8-Feb
Up early again to make it to Invercargill. As we got near the end of the beach we could see hundreds of vehicles and motor bikes. Turns out its the annual Burt Munro (of The Fastest Indian movie) motor bike racing on the beach. It’s the biggest event in Invercargill each year. Thousands of motor bikes. Every backpackers in town was booked out. We ended up in a Campground for the night.
9-Feb
Last day on the trail for us! Invercargill to Bluff, 32km on bike trail and highway, boring. We arrived at the end, Stirling Point near Bluff around 2.30pm, took some pictures and wandered back into Bluff for ice cream to celebrate 🎉. No more walking for us for a while! We have done over 190km in the last seven days.
We met a fantastic group of people walking the TA. Thank you all for your comradery! I hope you all continue to have many more adventures. We certainly will. I suspect we will be off to Japan again soon to do the Northern Alps Traverse or maybe Patagonia again😜.
Some tips/ideas:
Carry a PLB (we did)! We heard of a number of rescues and witnessed one. There are lots of places where if you fall you will not be seen by other walkers! One rescue we heard of the injured walker did not have a PLB. Another walker who did not know the injured one set his off to initiate the rescue. He then had a two day walk out to let his parents know he was OK and had set it off for someone else!
Don’t bother with a solar panel. The resupply points are close enough to just use a battery pack. A lot of the way is in dense beech Forrest so you can’t charge while walking anyway.
Take longer rest breaks. We only took one day breaks. This isn’t long enough for your body to recover. Most of the walkers we met were taking three or four day breaks. A lot of walkers drop out due to injuries – knees, ankles, blisters etc.
Hitch hike or catch a bus where you can. Unless your a purist the long sections of gravel or bitumen road are really hard on your feet and joints. They are also really boring!
Wear runners with mesh uppers, no gortex liners or boots. Your shoes need to be able to pump out the water from all the river crossings. I think there are around 1000 river crossings on the south island, most days you will have wet feet. Boots act like buckets and keep your feet wet as the water stays in the boot. Lots of people had problems with fungal infections. We saw a number of hikers walking in runners carring a pair of expensive boots strapped to their pack.
Good socks help. The Bridgedale socks Pauline had lasted the best. I wore out three pairs of Macpac wool socks, the heels wore away.
Get a pair of light trail running gaiters. These are usually made from stretch material and attach with Velcro to the runner. These do an excellent job of keeping stuff out of your shoes, especially on river crossings.
Wash your boots and socks every night. The fine mud embedded during the day wears away the shoes and socks like grinding paste.
Travel light! Most of the TA is over difficult terrain. Routes and footpads through mud, roots, rocks, tussock grass, scree. It is not 4×4 tracks or graded tracks like the great walks. It is hard on your joints traversing this terrain with a heavy pack. A lot of TA walkers are doing over 30km a day, every day, they all had light packs.
Travel alone or in a pair. The huts have limited beds. Hitching is much easier. Getting beds at backpackers is also easier.