Tekapo to Wanaka

Arriving into Tekapo was awesome, we had 15km to get off trail to meet the road and then a 13km road walk into town. We were sure we could hitch… It was not so, no cars in sight on this gravel road until Craig and Tania messaged us and said they were passing through Tekapo. Great! Are u able to come get us? Sure, they said! Yea, pub is now alot closer 😃😃

Next section to Twizel is 53km cycle. Yea we say! We weren’t planning on the McKenzie gale force head wind! This section nearly broke me, I now have a severely sore arse and another 34 km tomorrow! I’m not sure I can walk again,…

Broken is an understatement, it took 2 days for the swelling to go down!! Sure was glad to have my pack on and feet firmly on the ground climbing more mountains!

Left top Timaru hut, the trail was sideling the hills on a four inch wide track that dropped straight down, beautiful bush went up and down for a while until we hit the river. We decided to go off trail and follow the river through the canyon opposed to taking the hills, wow best thing we ever did, till it wasn’t cool any more! No really, it was a very beautiful canyon then it just got too difficult so we exited at nearest point to trail we could find.

We continued to sidle up n down until we came to a junction where we started the climb to the hut… This 2.2km climb took us 2 hours!!  I just kept looking at the elevation map thinking where in the world would the hut be if the map is showing it is only half the way up?  The TA Trail provides at least one challenge per day! Arriving at Stody’s hut to find we had the little tin hut with a dirt floor to ourselves, bliss…

Bindi dragged me out of bed this morning as their was a pub in sight! Had to do a wee climb first and a massive down but boy was it worth it!! The views over Lake Hawea were priceless. I truly feel our photos don’t give the views justice at all.