Day 109: Everything is Falling Apart
January 26, 2020
Kilometers: 2668.5-2699.1
Frankton Motor Camp to Taipo Hut
We got up at 5:50 this morning. We had a 8am shuttle to catch from downtown queenstown and had almost 7km to walk to get there. We set off at 6:30. We walked along the path I had run on the day before. We arrived in downtown at 7:40 and found the shuttle station.
We got on the shuttle that would take us first to Glenorchy and then a second one would take us to the car park on the opposite side of the lake where the trail restarts. It’s weird that they just stop the trail on one side of a massive lake and it restarts on the other but it is what it is.
The first shuttle didn’t take more than an hour. We were dropped off at a small cafe in Glenorchy. The guys got coffees and I got a bacon, egg and cheese croissant. Yesterday I had mentioned that we had reached peak hobo. Yet, today chuck pulled a bag of leftover pasta out of his pack and started eating it. Now we are at peak hobo status.
We laid in the grass for an hour until the next shuttle got us. We were three of four total people on the second shuttle. It took us around the north end of the lake and down a long gravel road. We were dropped off and ready to go. At this point I realized that my chest strap on my pack had been ripped off at some point during the morning. This kind of annoyed me but there is nothing I could do, I will have to finish without a chest strap.
The greenstone track started on a wide, well formed track. It was through a forested area and slowly climbed up a river valley. Once and awhile the forest would give way to some open grass lands.
We reached the first hut on the track. Greenstone Hut is a 20 person hut with a massive deck around it. We stepped inside to meet a young German man who we talked to as we ate our lunch. We weren’t there for long as we wanted to get to the next hut as soon as possible.
From the hut we had a short climb out of the valley. We walked through more forest towards a saddle.
Once at the saddle we left the forest and walked down towards open grass land. The sky grew darker as we made our way across the field towards the hut.
We arrived before 4:30 to find three other hikers in the 4 bunk hut. Luckily, two of the guys said they’d rather tent so all three of us got a bunk. We headed down to the river for a bath.
For dinner I made pasta and added in some carbonara sauce and some shredded ham slices with some chocolate afterwards. It was a solid dinner.
Unfortunately, today it kinda felt like everything was slowly falling apart or breaking on me. Other than my chest strap on my pack, this afternoon my lightning headphone converter stopped working. It lasted 36 hours before breaking. The vicious cycle of low quality iPhone accessories continues. Between my headphones, my charger and my headphone converter I feel like it’s been many weeks since they were all fully functional at the same time. It’s starting to get extremely annoying.
My shorts are also starting to fall apart rather rapidly. I can’t use the right pocket because there are many large holes close to each other that prevent me from sewing it. There are two huge holes on my upper back hip area where my pack sits, the friction between the pack and shorts is not preventable. I also still have many holes in the front of my shorts from my run in with a thorn bush a while back. There is a very solid chance that I find myself walking into Bluff in just my boxers at this point.
With only a bit over a week of hiking left I just need everything I have to get me to the finish line. Tomorrow we have a solid distance to cover but it’s all flat easy walking. As we fell asleep we could hear the mice in the hut running around in the ceiling and the walls. I just tried to pretend they didn’t exist.