Day 105: Stop and Smell the Roses

January 23, 2020

Kilometers: 2583.3-2607.9

Wanaka YHA to Fern Burn Hut

Even though we were in no rush this morning I was still awake before 6:30. I took a shower and headed over to the grocery store to resupply. I bought food for the next three days and again bought too much food. For breakfast I went to the bakery section of the store and got just about one of everything- a cinnamon sugar donut, a blueberry muffin, a raspberry filled donut, a cheese scone and a big thing of lemon bread. 

I went back across the street to the hostel to pack my food and eat my massive breakfast. After I was done I repacked my bounce box and headed over to the post office. I addressed it to the post office in Invercargill, a larger city that the trail runs through and is only a one day walk from the end of the trail. Crazy to think I’ll be on the southern coast strolling into Bluff in about 14 days. 

I then went over to the outdoors store to buy more fuel for my stove. Hopefully this bottle will be the last one I have to purchase. I then again returned to the hostel, checked out and walked over to the barber shop. I hadn’t gotten a haircut since Auckland and couldn’t wait to get to Queenstown to get one. I waited 30 minutes to get a cut but it was worth it. 

As I got my hair cut Team Belgium started the days walk, I wasn’t too far behind them when I started. The walk began along Lake Wanaka for the first 14kms. A few hundred meters into the walk I arrived at the Wanaka tree. It is an iconic tree that many have probably seen pictures of at some point. 

There were many tourists gathered on the edge of the lake taking pictures of the tree. This didn’t make me want to stay for too long. I kept walking along the lake and the further I went the less people I encountered. The trail was a dirt track the rose and fell as the edge of the land did. 

The walk wasn’t hard but it was hot out. I met up with Charlie and Peter at the Glendhu Bay Holiday Park, which is right on the lakefront, for lunch. I had pasta salad I had gotten at the grocery store, a big bag of Doritos, an apple and they also had a small store so we bought ice cream when we finished. I believe that means I hit all the important food groups for the meal. 

We were in no rush and as I finished lunch Peter and Charlie went for a dip in the lake. As we walked out of the holiday park we stopped to smell the roses.

From the holiday park we had about 3kms of road walking to get to the next big track. It was hot and dusty and not ideal road walking conditions, although Chuck still looks happy here. 

We got to the track just before 3pm. The first part of it went through deer paddocks. To keep the deer in they need tall fences so we actually had to step through them, it was kind of cool.

The first few kms on the track were easy. After that it got very hard very quickly. We walked along a creek going upstream. The heat and climbs got to me a bit. At one point I took my pack off and just submerged my whole upper half in the water. We continued through a valley with steep climbs. Can you see Peter and Charlie in the third picture below? 

Eventually the hut came in to sight. When we got up to it we realized we had it to ourselves, a big surprise. Here’s the hut from afar. 

We all headed down to the creek to bath. The water was a perfect temperature for our overheated bodies. After, I made pesto pasta for dinner and had a snickers bar for desert. The three of us were laying in our beds before 7.

I got a lot done today and was still able to walk 25kms. Tomorrow will be the hardest day we have left. It’s through the mountains with four huge ascents followed each by four huge steep descents. The alarms are set for 5:30am. We hope we can make it as far as we are planning, which will keep us on pace for Saturday in Queenstown.