Te Anau to Bluff

So after 77 days off due to the COVID-19 lockdown we flew back to the South Island, took a bus to Te Anau and attempted to finish the trail. It had gotten colder since we left the trail...

• Start: km 2773
• End: km 2795
• Hiked: 22 km

We woke up at 3:30am to the sound of pouring rain. Oh shit! It wasn't supposed to be raining. Our already high levels of anxiety and fear increased with the thought of a wet, freezing, winter walk. The roof of our room was tin and therefore the sound of the raindrops was quite dramatic. The high winds were also not adding a sense of calm to our current state. Eventually, Mathias fell back asleep. Leah continued to have a silent semi-panic attack. What have I gotten us in to? Hmm, we could always wait a day... But the forecast did not seem much more desirable the following day. No, we're doing this.

We got out of our warm-ish bed at 7am and packed up. We ate breakfast; however, Leah's appetite was not great: nerves. I kind of felt like the first day on the trail again; venturing out into the unknown. Neither of us have ever done winter camping and although we (Leah) felt that we were being safe, there was still strong worry (Mathias) about what was to come. We are learning that Leah tends to live in a 'best case scenario' world; while Mathias is a resident of the 'worst case scenario' world. Both have their positive and negative qualities; Leah's mindset has gotten us back on the trail in winter, Mathias's mindset will help to keep us alive.

The shuttle arrived promptly at 8am. It was about a 30 minute drive to the start of Princhester Road where we would continue our TA journey. It was sprinkling during our drive and when we got dropped off, the rain had started to pick up a bit. Part of us wanted to jump back in the shuttle and head back to our dry room in Te Anau, but the other part said, "you got this," and pushed us to move on. The 6 km walk to Lower Princhester Hut was easy. We followed a dirt road. The only daunting part was seeing the snow on the hills and mountains surrounding us. We thought that we might encounter snow at some point over the next few days, but had not expected to see so much at this elevation. Just before arriving at the first hut, a car passed us (coming from the direction we were heading towards). They stopped to ask us our plans. They were a bit quiet and their eyes seemed a bit shocked when we told them we were planning to complete the Takitimu Track. After a quick 'take care' from them, we continued on.

We had a quick break at the hut in order to eat some pickle and mustard sandwiches and fuel our bodies for the day ahead. Not even an hour after we left the hut, we were walking in up to our shins. The snow covered forest was beautiful; but also scary. The snow definitely slowed us down. We couldn't really see the track at some points, and given our experience on the TA, we knew that sometimes we'd be walking on a narrow ledge with a scary drop off on one side. We were careful to place our feet. From time to time chunks of snow would drop from the tree tops and land on our heads. Should we go on?

Then came the land of tussocks! Tussocks were never our favorite and tussocks in winter suck even more. Oh, did we mention that the rain continued? When we exited the forest into the tussock fields, we were welcomed by the rain. The ground was wet, muddy and freezing. Luckily we were wearing our waterproof socks, which helped keep our feet immensely warmer and dryer.

During the hike, Mathias was not in a good mental space. The words, "Oh f**k! I hate my life." might have come out of his mouth multiple times throughout the day. He was worried about our safety and our choice to move onward. He was stressing about the current day as well as the days ahead. Leah was so happy that she was not freezing and was actually quite enjoying being back on trail. She was also well aware that it was because of her that we were back on trail and if she had any complaints, she'd best keep them to herself.

Other than our break at Princhester Hut, we only took two mini-breaks to eat OSM bars and a Snickers; not even sitting down or taking our packs off. We shared the Snickers with a huge snowy mountain in the background, not fully embracing it as our fingers felt like ice.

The sun was setting. We still had not reached the hut, but we were close. The day took us quite a bit longer than we had expected. The trail notes said this section should take about 7.5hours. It took us about 9. Leah broke out her headlamp to help her during the final kilometer.

Mathias made a fire while Leah made dinner and boiled water (both to drink and to keep us warm- hot water bottles). We got out of our wet clothes, spread our things out all over the hut, and began eating. Forty-five minutes later, in the dark, we were shocked when two soaking wet trampers arrived: Louise and Marco.

What an unexpected treat! They too had been shocked by how long the day took. We instantly became great trail buddies. Louise, from Australia and Marco from Switzerland (Zug to be exact- where Leah's new school is located!). We talked about all of our mutual trail family members and we learned about their adorable story (they had met on the trail on their third day and have been together ever since. So awesome: a real trail romance. Love it). Oh, and we are both L&M couples: could our new trail family be any cuter?!

We all thought about what tomorrow would bring. We had originally planned on heading to Telford Campsite, which the trail notes said was about 10 hours away, but after the day we had, we decided to just go halfway-ish to Lower Wairaki Hut. Good, decision was made- now time for sleep. Our day would be shorter so we could have a little sleep in. We set the alarm for 8am. We zipped our sleeping bags together, Mathias placed a warm hot water bottle in the foot of our bags and we snuggled up. It was going to be a cold night, but for then, we were quite warm. Oh, and we were asleep by 19:30.

• Start: km 2795
• End: km 2808.5
• Hiked: 13.5 km

Last night had been a cold one. We were glad to have purchased our sleeping bag liners, which helped to keep us a bit warmer than we would have been without them. Our faces were the only part of our bodies that were exposed, and Leah could definitely feel the cold. Luckily, the temperature didn't keep us up all night. Having decided to aim for Lower Wairaki Hut instead of pushing further to Telford Campsite, we were able to have a bit of a sleep in. The trail notes said that it would be 13kms/6hrs to Lower Wairaki Hut. When you look at the kilometers to hours ratio and see that you will most likely be averaging 2km/hr, you tend to think "What are we in for?". We also couldn't really trust the notes given our experience yesterday. Also, in the notes was the following: 'The ground trail is light, or non-existent, so care and consideration is required to travel from marker to marker.' Hmmm, and how might the snowy ground play a part in our progression today? We wanted to make sure to allow enough time to arrive to the hut before dark.  

We left around 9am, and to our (Leah's) delight, the sky was blue and the sun was shinning. The majority of today's hike would take place in the forest; however, in order to get to the forest we would begin our day in the tussocks. Again, felt super grateful to our waterproof socks (Thanks Tom and Giulia for the first mention of such socks. And thanks to you miss Kirby for buying your own and encouraging us to do the same in Queenstown). The markers in the tussocks were not the best, but we found our way and once in the birch forest we enjoyed a pretty well marked trail. Yay!

The forest was quite beautiful and we were excited to spot some purple mushrooms (purple pouch fungus - as Marco told us later). They just looked unreal.

About 500 meters before Lower Wairaki Hut, we had to cross the Wairaki River. We both had our own ideas about the 'best approach', and in the end we decided to take off our waterproof socks (I mean, once the water goes in from the top they aren't much use), and walk across in sockless shoes. Mathias changed into his rain pants, not wanting to have to deal with trying to dry his other pants once they got wet (and also knowing there was no way they would dry) while Leah decided to go pants free. The river was icy cold. It was only a few meters wide, but in the time it took to cross our freezing feet were pretty much numb.

Then it was a quick uphill to the hut and to our surprise there was a fire place! Wooo Wooo! Due to the lovely weather of the day, we were not too cold and there was still some daylight left so we decided to gather wood for a fire (after putting on pants of course). There was already quite a bit of wood, but we knew that we would need to restock what we'd use and because the day had been quite chill, we still had a lot of energy. Louise and Marco arrived a bit later and we enjoyed hanging out and getting to know them even better. Marco, being Swiss, has some cultural similarities to Mathias. Louise and Leah have similarities as well. So we were able to have some good laughs about cultural differences within our relationships. 

As soon as it got dark, it got noticeably colder and we decided to light a fire. What we did not know was that the hut's chimney had been blocked for years and all the smoke stayed in the hut. It was pretty bad and burning heavily in our eyes, smoking everything in the hut (as of writing this, a good month later, our sleeping bags are hanging in the same room to air out and I can still smell them from over here). The fire warmed everything up a little, but we had no choice but to open the door frequently to get some air - ice cold air - and lose the little warmth again.

At some point in conversation on the first night we met L & M, we had discussed hypothermia. Louise had made some comment about knowing not to take off her clothes (as apparently some people will do this when they are not in their right mind). Why are we mentioning this now? We're glad you asked. Because when Leah woke up in the middle of the night and felt too warm, she did not consider the fact that the temperature might have been warmer than the previous night, but instead immediately thought 'Oh shit! Is this what Louise was talking about? I feel hot and really need to take off a layer. Am I actually experiencing hypothermia?" Leah might have woken up Mathias to make sure she wasn't dying from 1. Hypothermia and 2. Smoke inhalation. He assured her that she was fine and encouraged her to go back to sleep, which she did... eventually. 

• Start: km 2808.5
• End: km 2816
• Hiked: 7.5 km

We could not have been luckier with the weather. Thank you to all of you who put in the good weather requests! The trail notes said it would be about 4 hours to Telford Campsite. The DOC sign, just outside of the hut, said 8 hours. Having been surprised by the time of our first day back on trail, we were still a bit cautious. We figured we would encounter some snow which would most likely slow us down. We wanted to make sure we allowed ourselves enough time to make it to the campsite before dark. We also didn’t want to arrive too early because we had heard from many that the campsite was very exposed (some people’s tents got shredded from the extreme winds) and we didn’t want to be freezing in our tent, or worse: freezing in our shredded tent.  

We set off around 8:30am. The trail began with a bit of mud, but for the most part was quite straightforward. There was a pretty steady climb up to the Telford Tops. The views from the top were absolutely beautiful and we got to enjoy them as we continued our hike along the ridge line. There was enough snow to make it feel magical, but also little enough that we could usually see the trail and walk around some of the snow. Had we been here two days earlier (like some of our trail friends- shout out to Claire, Beatrice, Daniel), it would probably have been much more dramatic. Especially the relatively steep downhill after the ridge line would have been challenging if the ground would have been covered in snow.

We could still tell that someone walked on the trail recently, because in the area where most of the snow was already melted, some snow compacted by previous hikers still showed their footsteps.

Mathias had some problems with his forearm today. It seemed a bit bruised and was hurting when putting weight on the poles. It was probably from two days ago, when he slipped in the snow a few times and caught himself using his poles. So going down, he was only able to use one pole for now. Hopefully it will get better with some time and ibuprofen.

When we arrived at Telford Campsite, the scenery was actually quite stunning. Our focus had more or less been on the fear of a cold, windy night in an exposed area and we hadn't really considered that the spot might actually be awesome.

We took a moment to choose where to put the tent, because it was exposed everywhere and we were still worrying about the wind maybe picking up in the night. Then we got to enjoy our home for the night.

• Start: km 2816
• End: km 2844
• Hiked: 28 km

What a treat last night had been. We (and our tent) remained dry, warm and happy. There were definitely moments of wind that got our hearts beating a bit faster than normal, but mostly because of the dramatic flapping of Louise and Marco's tent. #ZpacksAreAwesomeButDramaticInWind. It was still dark when our alarms went off. While still remaining in her sleeping bag, Leah leaned out of the tent to boil water. We then ate our breakfast inside our cozy home before packing up and heading out.

Today's trek would begin and remain on Mt Linton Station, which is privately owned land. There is a huge section in the trail notes about the rules and conditions while passing over this land. We were a bit uptight because it states that you must only travel during daylight hours; however, given the short days during winter we weren't sure we would make it to Birchwood Station before dark. We began the trail just after sunrise.

About 20 minutes onto the trail we had our first crossing of the Wairaki River for the day. Again, we debated what to do about socks, shoes, sandals... in the end we decided to roll up our pants, take off our socks and head across. The Wairaki River was so cold (no surprise), but easy to cross. We then got to follow an easy farm track, which allowed us to make pretty good time. Later we had to cross the Wairaki River again and were glad to stop for a snack and 'dry and warm our feet' break.

The rest of the day, although seeming a bit long was pretty easy. We had to cross over a bunch of paddocks, which was a bit annoying when we could a see a road in the distance. But to be honest, Leah was just happy that she didn't have to worry about bulls (the paddocks were empty). Just before getting onto the road, things were a bit confusing and we ended up having to climb over to barbed wire fences, which we did without any scrapes. Mathias' arm was still hurting though, so he walked with only one pole the whole day.

We arrived at Birchwood Station just as Sarah (who lives there) finished preparing the fire in the fireplace. Yeah! Trailing behind her were her three kids who were excited to tell us about their bikes. We asked if she was still making hot meals and she said she'd be happy to fix something up for us. Also waiting for us was our package we had sent filled with food for the next section, which we'd recently decided we didn't need. Surprise: we had too much food. We'd deal with that later... Mathias went to enjoy a wonderful hot shower. He came out a new man. Leah was excited for her own transformation. The first drops of hot water were magical and she embraced them for about 15 seconds before they were replaced with freezing cold droplets; the hot water was gone! Oh well, at least it was still a shower.

Dinner was huge. Mathias, Louise and Marco at some enormous meat dish with potatoes, vegetables and cheesy goodness. Leah had a huge pile of potatoes and vegetables. And the boys bought themselves some beer. We were all delighted. We sat around at the table, being warmed by the blazing fire and enjoying each others company.

• Start: km 2844
• End: km 2870
• Hiked: 26 km

Marco and Louise decided to stay at Birchwood Station for a day to give Marco's knee that was bothering him a little more rest. So we quietly snuck out of the sleeping room and packed our bags in the living room of the hut. We left just as the sun began to rise turning the sky in beautiful colors.

After a short walk through the station and along a farm road, we turned off to the right and followed a fence line through multiple paddocks for a while. It was a constant up and down, where the downs usually treated us to some muddy puddles. Every time a new puzzle figuring out how to get around.

Then the uphill began and it got steeper and steeper. We had heard that this hill was a "beast" before and it turned out not to be an exaggeration. It seemed to get steeper and steeper and we started to take a break after every 40 or so steps. Intense.

After we got up to the summit (yahoo!), the trail changed to a nice flat forest road for a while. We made good progress for the next almost 5 km. Then after a short muddy patch, the trail went through a rather nice forest down into the next valley. We crossed the valley and after crossing a private forest over a little hill, there were only 2.5 km along Tutapere road to Merriview Hut.

We were positively surprised by the hut: It had a cute deck in front of it and it was actually warm enough to hang out on the deck for a little, chill and see the sunset while enjoying hot ramen. Inside there were 5 bunk beds which we had to ourselves for the night. Unfortunately there was no fireplace, but we were still warm enough. We fell asleep to the sounds of wind and rain on the tin rooftop.

• Start: km 2870
• End: off trail
• Hiked: 15 km

Normally the trail would continue through the Longwood Forest after Merriview Hut. But because of the weather we decided to bypass the forest, so we could avoid being caught in bad weather and having to camp in the middle of it. Instead we signed up for 1 1/2 days of road walking. Today was a shorter day to Otautau and then we will continue to Riverton from there the following day.

Not much to report on the road walking itself. The first 2.5 km were just backtracking where we came from yesterday and then we continued on pretty much the same road for the rest of the day. Once we were surprised by the rain and didn't make a quick enough decision to put rain pants on, so we had to walk in soaking wet pants for a while. Luckily the rain didn't persist and on the positive side it presented us with some beautiful rainbows along the way.

We arrived in Otautau just after noon and had ourselves a big lunch (including a whole loaf of garlic bread... a staple on the trail) at the Otautau Hotel where we also planned to stay for the night. The hotel part of the property seemed pretty vacant, we seemed to be the only guests.

Mathias' arm was still bothering him and his wrist was making strange noises, when moving it. So we decided to take advantage of the free afternoon and and headed on over to the Otautau Medical Centre. They were able to give us a drop-in appointment and a nice doctor from the US helped eased the worry that it could be something that might get worse over time. Probably just an inflammation that would get better with rest (but as he said ... not too much rest).

Nap time. Pizza & Beer for dinner (just missed happy hour). Sleep.

• Start: off trail
• End: km 2941
• Hiked: 26 km

As we had a longer road walk today, we started early. The side walks were partly frozen at that time of the day. But when the sun came out, it quickly got warmer and we removed layer by layer. It was quite early into our day when we turned onto Otautau-Riverton Road and realized (by the name) that we would not be making any more turns any time soon. One. Long. Road.

Midway through the day we took a nice break on the side of the road to enjoy some snacks. Other than that, we didn't have any other breaks. Well, other than the bathroom break where Leah ran onto a side road (trying to be stealth) only to be caught by a silent biker who rode up beside her. Whoops. He ended up being very nice and gave us some recommendations about where to eat in Riverton.

When we arrived in Riverton, we found a hostel/bar/biker hangout (as one does) where we could crash for the night. This one was definitely one of the most basic / run down places we stayed at. Only one of the power outlets in the room seemed to be connected and there were a couple of defect heaters on the wall. The room was damp. The shower apparently was heated by a fireplace in the "lounge" room - we didn't dare to try.

After we dropped our things, not much kept us in our accommodation and we made our way to the Crib Cafe, where we treated ourselves to dinner. Just as we were finishing up, we looked outside and to our surprise there were 4 TA hikers (friends from trail past): Claire, Beatrice, Adam 'Papa' Brown and Daniel (new to us). We sat and chatted with them for awhile; catching up on post-quarantine trail life. We also learned in that time that Claire, Beatrice and Daniel (Adam had already finished the trail) planned to do the last 70km in one day. They were going to leave at 1am and walk through to Bluff. They're crazy! We wished them luck (we knew they could do it, it just sounded so horrible to us!) and hoped to see them two days later when we ourselves arrived in Bluff.

• Start: km 2941
• End: km 2973
• Hiked: 33 km

Holy coldness! We woke up to a very chilly morning filled with frost. What does one need on a freezing morning before embarking on a 30+ km walk? Coffee and sweets. We headed back to The Crib Cafe to fuel up. Yum.

Then it was on to Oreti Beach. We were very lucky with the tides. The walk along the beach was beautiful and filled with alien-like frozen treasures: sea plants attached to rocks looking like creatures from the depths below. It was so cool!

The beach walking brought back memories of our first three days of the trail on 90-mile beach. The first four hours or so were quite enjoyable. Eventually we had to ford the mouth of the Waimatuku Stream. We kept our shoes on this time, but rolled up our pant legs. The crossing wasn't too deep (just up to our calves) or too wide, but it was cold!

After the crossing we had about 10km of beach walking to go before making our way onto the road for another 10km. When we exited the beach, we stopped at a restaurant to refuel and warm up. The food and warmth was needed, but the resting gave our bodies the time to realize that they were in pain! We pulled ourselves together and hobbled out to finish our day of hiking.

We arrived in Invercargill and headed to the TuaTara Lodge; our accommodation for the night. Not much to say about the place other than the fact that they charged $5 for a towel - each - not cool, guys. We took our showers, thankful to have hot water and be clean-ish again. We then walked to Dominos and grabbed ourselves $5 pizzas, ate them in bed, and passed out.

Tomorrow was going to be our final day on the TA.

• Start: km 2973
• End: km 3006.5
• Hiked: ~ 33.5 km

Today was the day we were going to finish the trail. It seemed unreal. We packed up our bags and headed out to grab a quick breakfast and some coffee before jumping back on trail... for the final time. We knew there was going to be a lot of road walking today, and had done our best to mentally prepare for it.

The first section of the trail was actually quite lovely. It began on a shared walking and cycle track which ran along side the New River Estuary. We got to cross over a cool bridge and observe some birds along the way. We embraced this time as we knew the road was coming.

Thankfully we had wonderful weather and the road walking didn't have the additional challenge of rain. Of course, it still came with its regular challenges: cars and trucks flying by too close, pain in your joints and feet, road noise, etc. We could see Bluff in the distance quite quickly into our 16km road walk, which was a bit of a mind challenge. We walked and walked and walked and yet Bluff did not seem to be getting any closer... until it finally got closer. And soon we were at the first famous Bluff sign. This actually came as quite a surprise as we thought this sign would be closer to the finishing sign. We were excited to see it nonetheless.

There were two ways for us to the get to the end: walk a few kilometers father through town and end up at the end or walk up a steep ass hill, enjoy the lookout, and walk on down the hill to the ending at Stirling Point. We opted for the latter, and boy were we glad that we did! The hill kicked our booties, but it was worth it. The view was great. The walk down followed a well maintained path with stunning views of the bay.

And then came the fantails (birds)... in abundance. It was like they came out to cheer us on and lead the way to the finish line (bad quality video). We went around a curve and for the first time could see the famous yellow signpost just up ahead. It was an emotional moment. In just a couple of minutes we were going to complete our journey. And then, we heard yelling and saw figures waving their hands: it was Claire, Beatrice and Daniel. They cheered for us as we took our final steps to the end. We were greeted with hugs, snacks, drinks, and trail friends. We popped the champagne that Mathias had carried for all day from Invercargill to celebrate. What a magical ending to our incredible journey.

We hung out at the signpost for quite some time, eating, drinking, laughing, rejoicing, taking photos and just trying to take it all in. It didn't seem real. Nor did it seem real when we headed back to our hostel for the night (where Claire made us all a delicious meal). We went to bed with happy hearts and minds trying to comprehend what we had just accomplished.

1 mission, 2 islands, 3 seasons, 4 feet, 5 weeks in lockdown, 6+ pairs of shoes, uncountable steps and sandfly bites: Te Araroa. 3006 km from Cape Reinga to Bluff. November 23, 2019 - June 15, 2020 including a lockdown. Wonderful friendships that will stay with us. An adventure we will never forget.