Day 72-73 | Twizel & Christmas
24/25 December 2022 | 23°C | 27km
10 AM when I first look at my phone. Are we going for a walk today or just chilling at the lodge? not good to make decisions with an empty stomach, so let’s have breakfast first. It’s probably checkout time already but fortunately the young folks from the lodge are very flexible. The breakfast we have on the deck with awesome views is actually the lunch menu and consists of a soup with a cheese and ham toast.
In the end, we decide to go for a walk towards Twizel along the lake today. It was nice to have the morning off and chill but the legs have rested and want to get going. We get a bottle of sparkling wine from the bar for a potential Christmas eve celebration in the tent by the lake. Shortly after starting to walk back to the trail junction, a camper van stops and an English couple from Texas saves us from walking an extra 3.5 km giving us a ride to the junction.
After all the climbing of the past day, it’s and it’s a very enjoyable walk along the mountain bike trail around Lake Ohio today, slightly cloudy, but nice temperature. It’s 5h30 when we get to the river so it’s either camping somewhere on the way to Twizel, walking another 13km or walk along the canals where the chances to get a ride into town with one of the people fishing there seem pretty good.
A look on google maps indicates that the supermarket closes at 7pm so the decision to get a ride and catch up with the missed km the following day is quick. It’s no problem at all to get a ride, enough time to get some champagne and everything needed for a feast on Christmas Day. We are not lucky with finding accommodation - everything is closed or fully booked - but there is a nice and peaceful area by a river that is the perfect campground.
Bummer of the day: My new shoes are waiting at the High Lands Lodge which is closed until December 26, 2pm. Meow!
Day 74 | Aoraki / Mount Cook (side trip)
26 December 2022 | 22°C | 12km (to lake pukaki)
Spontaneous side trip to Mount Cook (Aoraki in Māori), New Zealands highest mountain. The initial plan was to walk as fast as possible towards Tekapo with only a daypack (“slackpacking”) and then hitch back to Twizel.
It’s a lovely sunny day, the track is flat and we watch parachutes walking over a vast plain until we reach Lake Pukake whose waters are incredibly turquoise blue-ish that day. Lots of people stopping to take photos or the lake with Mount Cook in the background.
Quick decision to change plans as it’s the closest we will ever be to New Zealand’s highway mountain. We walk to the turn off to mount cook village and put our thumbs out but nobody stops. When we decide to give it 5 more minutes, a van from the Heremitage hotel stops and a lady working there gives us a ride.
We look at the fascinating mountains from the hotelscafe, take tons of photos and visit the Edmund Hillary exhibition. How much harder his “travels” must have been compared to ours! I could have stayed there forever but we still have to get a ride back to Twizel which turns out to be surprisingly easy. We squeeze into a small car of a hippie couple and their two dogs (dackels).
Happy End of the Day: I get to the High Country Lodge in time to pick up the parcel with my new shoes. 👟🥳
Day 75 | Lake Tekapo
27 December 2022 | 42km
Long distance hikes teach you every day how you can make yourself unhappy when you make your surroundings responsible for your happiness: it’s either too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry. Today it will be too windy.
But first things first: the hitch to Lake Pukake is not as easy as we thought. Finally, a young guy heading to Christchurch gives us a ride. “I love you” says a sticker on the board. Must be nice to see that each morning when you get into your car.
The walk of the day is a longer stretch along the lake, followed by an eternally long and boring walk along the Tekapo canal. To make it even worse the wind picks up in the afternoon, full on head wind.
We call some accommodation as soon as we have reception but the entire town of Tekapo seems to be fully booked. Once we finally arrive at 9h15pm all restaurants have already stopped denning food. Not surprised but still disappointed, we use the kitchen of the Lakefront Backpackers to cook our dinner.
It’s dark already and we sneak into the backyard of a school, a nice spot for cowboy camping (sleep without a tent, just sleeping pad and bag).
Day 76 | Campsite at km 630
28 December 2022 | 22°C | 23km
The sun wakes me up at 7am and I realize that I slept very well in that little hideaway behind the school. I have an urgent need to take a shower, so I quickly pack my stuff to head over to the hostel to ask if I can use their showers.
The reception is still closed so I sit some time by the lake before heading to a cafe with the funny name “The greedy cow”. I am positively surprised as they have a lot of veggie/vegan options on the menu. Heaven!
There’s the usual town chores of shopping and laundry and it’s around 2pm when we hit the trail. It leads along Lake Tekapo and as the sun burns down today we jump Into the lake for a quick, refreshing swim.
When the trail leaves the gravel road, we meet two pretty exhausted southbound hikers. They have a big day behind them (and a steep and difficult climb as we would see the next day).
Find of the day: A cool and sheltered camp spot with views over the lake and a beautiful sunset.
Day 77 | Royal Hut
29 December 2022 | 22°C | 27km
The highest point of the Te Araroa is on our way today. The biggest challenge of the day though is once again: way finding. The morning starts easy over a plateau offering awesome views of snow covered mountains. Not entirely sure but it looks like one of these is Mount Cook from the back.
After lunch we get off track twice when first a totally misplaced sign leads us onto a trail that would suddenly disappear and - shortly after being back on track again - inadvertently turn of a four wheel drive road without any signage. Not even the slightest trace of a trail is visible.
I get a bit tired after all these detours and start listening to some music to stay motivated. The climb to the saddle is long but gradual and not too steep and the views some of the best of the trail so far I feel. It’s bloody windy at the highest point (only 1.900m actually) so we head down soon after taking a last look back to the lake and an impressive mountain range. From two hikers at the top, we learned that the next hut is already full but we planned to hike further anyway.
Easier said than done! The trail is steep, overgrown, sometimes invisible and involves crossing a small steam several times. Progress is slow and once we reach Royal Hut we are pretty sore. We say hi to the people in the hut and pitch our tents just 1 km further up the trail.
Day 78-79 | Geraldine & New Years
30/31 December 2022
One of the hottest days on trail is followed by one of the coldest: Today.
The Rangiriri river valley - a river that is very hard to cross by foot- is coming up and we have already booked a shuttle to take us to the town of Geraldine for New Years and then up again at the other side of the river after on 1st of January.
A French girl at Royal Hut said that there’s another river just before that that it currently difficult to cross due the tcan be crossed but water would reach up to the hip. Though we had done this kind of crossings before and would do this anytime again on a nice day, we do not really feel like it on a slightly rainy and foggy day like today. There seems to be an alternative trail avoiding that. It would go over a saddle and start just a couple of kilometers after our campsite.
When walking towards the turn off, a female hiker crosses our path and we learn that she just came that way. It’s a good walk just a bit cold at the top, she says. She is wearing big gloves. The track starts easy, steadily climbs and the misty clouds have something magical. My hands start getting cold and I put them into the pockets of my rain jacket beneath my rain poncho. Further up it starts raining, a very cold rain. I just look at my feet and focus on moving quickly.
The saddle comes into sight and the wind picks up. There are a few patches of snow after the saddle. It’s freezing cold and we quickly head down. The thought of changing clothes in a nearby hut keeps me going but it turns out that the hut is off trail and we decide against going there (it also is a private hut and most probably closed). I still decide to stop to put on my rain pants against the wind and another long sleeve but my hands are so cold that I can hardly open the zippers of my pants. I am desperate and feel like crying. But it is what it is and the only way out of this is walking.
Roughly four hours later we get to the road. As we are now ahead of our schedule and have no phone reception, the shuttle would only come the next day so the only option to get to town today is hitch hiking. The road looks so deserted that getting a ride seems like a miracle. Who would head up a gorge that is basically a one way street without exit?
A young farmer passes by and offers to take us a few kilometers further. When he drops us off by a holiday home, he mentions that an open WiFi conncection at the house that we could use to make a phone call. While I head up to the house, Phil stays by the road just in case. I have just connected to the WiFi when a car pulls over. It’s volunteers that help maintain backcountry mountain huts directly heading to Geraldine. Bingo!
Day 80 | Camp at km 694
1 January 2023 | 12km
1st of January 2023. On a day like this one would probably get up at some point, have lunch and have a nap on the couch in the afternoon to compensate the lack of sleep (or a hangover).
Not us though today.
It’s 2h30 pm when the shuttle drops us off at a bridge up the gorge (close to Erawon, a location of Lord of the Rings). I am tired and my legs are heavy. Alhough the terrain is pretty flat, the first couple of kilometers seem endless. It’s getting better after a break by Lake Clearwater and at the end of the day it’s 12km on the speedometer. Choice!
Day 81 | Clent Hills Saddle
2 January 2023 | 20°C | 33km
Easy walk in the morning. Kiwis still seem to enjoy their holidays. We see a few families cruising around with their jeeps and pick up’s going fishing or hunting.
We admire the scenery at a beautiful lake that reflects the mountains around when a car arrives. A couple from Tasmania who is on vacation in New Zealand. While Stuart is fly fishing, we are having a conversation with Katie. There’s are quite some mosquitoes around but luckily she is equipped with an anti-mosquito spray that she is spraying all around us to make sure we are not bitten.
When reaching Double Hut in the afternoon where we had initially planned to spend the night, it is only 4PM.
“I will not make it to the saddle today but camp somewhere before that” is what I say halfway up on Clent Hill. Somehow my ankle started hurting in the morning already. Problem is that there are not very many flat spots to camp. Once we detect one, we don’t have any water, once we get to the next stream, a potentially good spot is very rocky, so we keep on moving over the next hill.
We are so picky about camp spots that suddenly the saddle comes into sight. Saddles tend to be pretty windy and not a great place to camp, is what I think.
But then surprise! Walking to the very right side, we unexpectedly find a fantastic camp spot with great views back into the valley with beautiful sunset.
Once more a rewarding, happy end at the end of a long, hiking day!
