Te Araroa day 27

Early start this morning to get from Hamilton Hut to Harper campsite, also known as trustpower camp.
Being picked up by Wayne to bypass the Rakaia river which cannot be crossed.
Nice 20km walk following the Harper river, lost the track few times and a lot of river crossing so more wet feet. They seem to be well used to it now.
Made good time, arrived about midday to find Jane also waiting.
Beautiful scenery in the road trip round. Pitty there is no track that can be followed past Lake Coleridge. It would have been a long hot road section.
From drop off another 10km up over a saddle and down to hut. It was very hot and ascended more the 700m in 6km to reach the top of the saddle. Great view looking back to the Rakaia river valley.
The scenery has certainly changed from beech forest to tussock.
I do love this scenery. So epic and hard to capture in a photo.
Reached the hut very tired late in the day. What an awesome little 3 bunk hut - not surprisingly call The A frame hut.
Very tidy inside, new windows front and back. Very few sandflies, so managed to have dinner sitting on a rock as the sun set behind the mountains.
Special times.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Te Araroa day 55

Image
Garmin Connect The weather turned and what a beautiful blue sky day for my final day to Bluff. 35km. I bought a celebratory whisky to enjoy at the end, its a small bottle of Cardrona New Zealand Whisky. Felt appropriate after a few celebrations on the journey. - sharing whisky and coffee at end of day on queen Charlotte with Melu & Nike - top of Waiau Pass, whisky slushy with the St Arnaud team, Anne, Dave, Kerry, Dale, Kirsten, Nicki, Peter and Holly - stag saddle, celebrating highest point with Jane and Alex The walk to Bluff starts with a nice trail by the estuary. Followed by a long stretch of noisy road. I did pass an old church on the way, which must be the farthest south. I do have a love of old wooden churches.which can be found dotted around New Zealand..I should write a book about them one day. The last 6km of the Te Araroa trail finishes with a trail round the Bluff, offering beautiful vistas west and across to Stewart Island.
Read more

Te Araroa day 54

Image
Garmin Connect Otatara holiday park to Invercargill was a short an uneventful day, just 7km on the side of the road. Really just a rest day, or delaying the end. Lucky it was not the day i planned the big push to the end, it was a little wet when i left, and remained for most of the day, so was nice chilling in Invercargill and even managed to go to the movies to keep out of the rain. Some great old building in Invercargill, churches and masonic lodges, very Scottish. And of course visited the awesome motorbike museum. Perhaps I won't get an electric motorbike after all. A moto guzzi or Indian might be next.
Read more

Route Plan

Obviously I need a spreadsheet to plan this journey. I have been working and re-working the plan for some time. Here is a summary of the current estimated daily distances and nightly camps. The hardest sections being the Richmond Apline Track and Waiau Pass Track which are both high and remote. Fortunately, if timing permits, I will be joined on the Waiau Pass with friends from St Arnaud. I will be thankful for the company a couple of weeks into the journey and following New Year. Km Total Location nights avg km/ day total acc days date start end dist Destination 5 0 Boat from Picton 1 1 2021-12-18 1714 1719 5 school house camp 61 61 Queen Charlotte Track 3 20.33 4 2021-12-19 1719 1741 22 camp bay (22km) 1741 1758 17 black rock (17km) 1758 1780 22 Davies bay (22km) 44 105 Anakiwa to pelorus bridge 2 22.00 6 2021-12-22 1780 1803 23 Havelock(23km) 1803 1824 21 pelorus bridge (21km) 27 132 Pelorus River Track 1 27.00 7 2021-12-24 1824 1851 27 middy creek hut (26km) 113 245 Richmond Alpine
Read more