Category: Te Araroa
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Day 126-127
Day 126: Twizel to Unamed hut I woke up to rain pattering down outside and when Cecile and I looked at the river forecast the flow had risen to a level that was above our comfort level. We made the easy decision to hitch to a road right after the Ahuriri river that we could…
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Day 123-125
Day 123: Stone hut to Camp Stream hut The day dawned clear as forecast so it was a go for Stag Saddle, the high point of the TA at 1925m. First, we set off towards Royal hut. It was a freezing morning and of course multiple stream crossings were on the agenda, as well as…
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Day 121-122
Day 121: Mesopotamia station to Crooked Spur hut After a relaxing couple of days in the countryside near the town of Timaru, it was time to get back to the trail. Steve, the trail angel with whom I’d been staying very kindly offered to drive me to he trailhead. We also arranged to collect Cecile…
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Day 116-120
I’ve been resting in Christchurch and figuring out my plan. Final decision is to skip about 145km and rejoin the trail after the two large braided rivers (Raikaia and Rangitata) that it’s recommended to shuttle around each. I also bought some new trail runners with a higher heel to toe drop than my current ones…
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Day 110-115
Day 110: Boyle Village to Hope Halfway hut I had a late start today as I only got on trail after lunch (another pizza). It was blazing hot and the trail of course started off being very exposed. It was a short stint on a track next to the highway and then down into the…
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Day 105-109
Day 105: Upper Traverse hut to Blue Lake hut I didn’t have a great night sleep, it wasn’t noisy in the hut but I somehow missed my window to fall asleep and then couldn’t. It didn’t seem too windy in the morning and there were some patches of blue sky peaking through the clouds so…
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Day 101-104
Day 101: Nelson to St-Arnaud I met up with my lift, a family of 4 going up to the Nelson Lakes for a quick weekend tramp, as planned. They seemed apologetic about giving me the middle seat in the back, but I was just incredibly grateful for the lift. I got to St-Arnaud just before…
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Day 97-100
Day 97: physio follow-up My trail angel works next to the physio clinic so she kindly drove me to my 7 am appointment on Tuesday before she went to work. The physio didn’t seem so happy with my knee’s lack of progression and added a torn meniscus as a possiblity although a ‘sprain’ still seems…
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Day 90-91
Day 90: Top Wairoa to Porters hut I didn’t have a great night, I just couldn’t sleep and then had to pee so I had to climb down from my bunk and navigate the people sleeping on the floor. I must have dropped off eventually but was woken before 6 by one person getting up…
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Day 88-89
Day 88: Old Man hut to Tarn hut It had started raining the previous evening and had rained quite hard at times over night. It was still drizzling in the morning when we got up. Hanna was up for continuing over Mt Rintoul, which the trail notes don’t recommend doing in ‘poor’ weather. Emmet and…
On the Trail with Stella 