Holger didn’t want to pay to rent a bike so we could bike from Lake Tekapo to Twizel, and neither of us was keen on walking 48k in a day (there is nowhere you can camp between the two towns), so we decided to hitch. We went to breakfast with some of the people he’d […]
We woke up to light rain, got packed up and went to the top of the saddle, the highest point on the TA! The weather wasn’t too bad, gusty but the rain was slowing so we hiked along the ridge instead of going into the valley, which was a good choice because the views from […]
The plan was to hike past the two next huts and camp right before Stag Saddle, the highest point on the TA. Hunter, Flow and I got going around 8 and it was immediately uphill, in hindsight it would have been better to leave a little earlier to avoid the heat, but it wasn’t terrible […]
Flo, Pierre and I got a shuttle to the trailhead with Lizabeth🇧🇪, Carolann 🇩🇪, Roe 🇳🇿 and Demelza 🇳🇿. The trail started following the river bed with a lot of crossings, but not difficult ones. At one point the trail goes up over a large hill then back down to a river, but we opted […]
We met Marryanna 🇦🇹 at the hut, she was finishing the South Island TA (she had to skip it and was just coming back to complete the trail), so Pierre, Flow and I hiked with her, she also arranged a shuttle at 5 PM at the parking lot, which I arranged for the day after […]
The day started really cold, there was frost on the ground and the Comyns hut has no insulation. I didn’t want to get out of my sleeping bag. When I did I put on all my layers and had a couple cups of coffee and a cup of green tea. The NOBOs informed us that […]
Got an early shuttle out of Methven with Katie, Georgia, Sanne and Gerben. Started hiking around 9. The trail was uneventful at first but started climbing into high grassland with amazing views all around. I skipped coffee to catch the shuttle, so when I reached the top of Turtons saddle I made coffee there and […]
The next section was along a gravel road to Lake Coleridge, I think 28k, where there is only very expensive accommodation, and the trail dead ends at the Rakaia river, which is considered a hazard zone and the trail notes say not to attempt crossing. The river itself is big and often split into sections, […]
There was a small side hike to a tarn called mirror tarn, one of the guys at the hut, Flo 🇳🇿, said it wasn’t worth it, but I thought I’d give it a look anyway. Turns out yesterday it was too windy and didn’t look great, but today was beautiful. The trail followed the Harper […]
Took a shuttle from Christchurch to the trail near the Bealey hut, we got started hiking around noon. We hiked through some low clouds before things eventually cleared. The path wasn’t difficult, we got to the A frame shelter for a lateish lunch and we pleasantly surprised to run into Katie, Georgia, Gerben and Sanne. […]