Te Araroa day 50

Woke to a beautiful sun rise through the mist of the morning.
The shearing quarters at the Birchwood Station provided a great stay for the night.
The day started with a calf busting 400m vertical climb followed by a nice gentle forest road section through pine forest before entering native forest.
finishing with some road before the merivale hut.

Nice sentiment from locals, although not sure if the upsidedown flag is significant.

The hutwas set on a wee plot of land next to a field of horses. 5 bunk hut with narrow bunks and large mattresses, risk of rolling off in the night.
Mouse appeared interested in content of packs. Trap with peanut butter very effective. 
Morning horses grazing.

Comments

  1. IainFebruary 22, 2022 at 8:05 AM

    I have googled the significance of the upside down flag and it appears to be a signal for destress. The country is certainly in distress, and the muppets demonstrating in Wellington are not helping.

    ReplyDelete

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