Day 147: Oreti beach to Invercargill

It was another very chilly morning so it was hard to get out of the sleeping bag again. My fingers got very cold putting away the wet tent so I was glad to have a warm mug to wrap them around afterwards. As I was putting my tent away a man came over and introduced himself as the man who had designed my Aarn pack, Mr. Aarn himself. We chatted a bit and it turns out that he’s doing some sections of the TA and had done the Bluff to Invercargill section Nobo the previous day. I was thinking about asking for a personal adjustment of my pack but decided against it since I was getting too cold just standing around. We set off down the road and made our first stop at a grocery store a few kms away to get some lunch things.

Then it was a few more km along the road before turning off onto a path through an estuary. The views out over the estuary were nice, however it was a bit industrial on the Invercargill side.

We saw a few cyclists and everyone we saw congratulated us on almost being done.

We eventually stopped for lunch and shortly after lunch, the trail hit the 3000km mark.

The track then joined the highway and followed it. We didn’t go very far along the highway, just to the turn off for a communications museum that seemed deserted, before hitching back to Invercargill. A Department of Conservation worker picked us up, which was cool since he’d helped to build a lot of TA in Southland. After checking in to our hostel, we went for a cider at the pub next door while our clothes were washing and then went on a mission to get a bottle of champagne. The grocery stores here usually have a vast selection of wines, including champagne, but the ones here had no alcohol so we ended up walking a few kms to a liquor store. Finally back at the hostel we met up with Elsa and had some cheese and crackers to go with the chutney that had been gifted to us and then headed out for dinner to a Vietnamese restaurant in a hotel that seemed quite fancy. It was the first time I felt a bit conscious of being dresses in hiking clothes in a while. The food was great, especially the pork Bao buns and mushroom dumplings. It’s hard to believe right now that tomorrow is the last day of the trail, I feel ready for this adventure to end although it will be strange not to be walking most days and for us all to go our separate ways.

Day 148: Invercargill to Stirling Point (Bluff)

I woke up just before 6am and immediately thought ‘this is the last day!’. I couldn’t get back to sleep but managed to stay in bed until 7:30 when we all got up. The excitement was palpable as we were getting ready and there was a lot of talk of favorite sections. Elsa headed off quickly since she had 10 more kms to do, while Caroline, Cécile and I went to a café for some breakfast. I had my usual flat white and some banana bread french toast. After eating, we walked to the edge of town to get a hitch back to where we had left off yesterday. The person who stopped to pick us up was the father of another TAer finishing today, Charlotte. The TA had a few classics in store for us today, starting with a 15km walk along the highway. At least there was a dedicated path to walk on so we weren’t right on the shoulder, there were some poles to separate our ‘track’ from it. It was noisy though since a lot of transport trucks use the highway to take goods to the port in Bluff. Bluff finally came into view.

The road walk ended at the Bluff sign.

We then had a real track to follow around the peninsula. The first part was quite confusing to follow and we had to climb over a fence and then through another one. We stopped for lunch at a spot with a nice view of Stewart Island.

The track continued around the coast with a few small streams and boggy areas to negotiate. I somehow managed to keep my feet quite dry by leaping from rock to rock. After arriving at a viewpoint, we had a final 2km climb up to the top of Bluff hill. It was mostly quite reasonable although there were a few steeper sections. The track was at least very well maintained and even had some stairs. At the top, Caroline and Cecile played their favorite summit song, ‘fait moi l’amour’ a French 80s classic.

It was cloudy/foggy at the top of the hill so there wasn’t much view. The final 2km of the day were downhill to Stirling Point and went by very quickly. We arrived to a small crowd of other TA finishers, Charlotte, Tessa, Sarah, a couple I hadn’t met before and a girl called Miranda that I hadn’t met yet either. Stu and Becs were there, who had finished yesterday but who came to cheer today’s finishers. Finally Elsa arrived and then Micky, Penny, Ben, Will and Siobhan. We were 14 in all, so more finished with me today than I started with.

We had some champagne and then some of us went for dinner at the restaurant next to the sign.

It was a merry evening and we arrived at our hostel a few kms away quite late. Our host, Kay, was lovely though and after a tour of the premises, we were soon clean and warm in our beds.

With all the celebrations, it was hard to feel anything but joy over finishing. I have to say though that I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that I’ve pretty nearly walked an entire country and around 3000km, maybe because it’s such a gradual feat and you really do just take it one day or section at time.

I’m heading off to Stewart Island tomorrow morning and the others each have their own plans as well. It’s not goodbye for too long though: I might meet up with Caroline before leaving NZ to do another hike and she’s eventually coming to Montreal, Cécile is moving to Montreal next month for a few years and I’m already scheduled to dog sit their corgi when she and her partner go for a visit to France this summer and I’ll see Elsa in Auckland before heading home. Perhaps things will sink in more over the next few days that I have to myself. In any case, I’ll continue to blog until I head home so there should be a few more posts to come!