TA Day 113, Arrowtown to Routeburn Track, 30 km
I’m up before dawn, quietly moving my gear into the common room so I can pack loudly. Someone on the Guthook hiker app couldn’t find this fabulous space with several sinks, dishes, hot water dispenser and comfy chairs where I prepare for the day ahead. I’m nervous starting because I have no idea how I’ll […]
TA Day 112, Roses Hut to Arrowtown, 24 km
The stars did not disappoint. I checked often through the night, the nearly full moon lighting up this wild landscape. Only after it set, did twinkling commence. I’m a bit in between now – longing for my own bed and big bathtub, but I don’t want this hike to end. And that’s definitely true for […]
TA Day 111, Fern Burn Hut to Roses Hut, 17 km
Walking is the natural recreation for a (wo)man who desires not absolutely to suppress (her) intellect but to turn it out to play for a season. All great (wo)men of letters have therefore been enthusiastic walkers. —Leslie Stephen I’m awakened by one of the Czech’s alarms. He has to scramble down from the top bunk […]
TA Day 110, Wanaka to Fern Burn Hut, 27 km
The morning is lazy because I have to wait for the bank to open. I load up on more calories, the good conversation continues and I thumb through a photo book with commentary on Harry and Andrew’s hike in Nepal, licking my chops dreaming of more places I want to go. Olive Oyl is weighted […]
TA Day 109, ‘zero day’ Wanaka
Pink sky in the morning, hiker take warning. Good thing I planned a rest day as the clouds move in, shut out the mountains and it begins to rain. I am happy to have the day for only a few tasks like sending on my bounce box to Invercargill, resupplying for the next section, changing […]
TA Day 108, side trip! Rob Roy Glacier, Mt. Aspiring National Park
Pink light glows on the mountains and glaciers. A perfect sky for a day trip. Harry and I have been assigned to the lunch making squad – cheese, hummus and avocado sandwiches, chocolate and nuts and a few exploded hard boiled eggs.
TA audio narrative: water, water everywhere
The saying goes that in the North Island, you get dirty and in the South, you wash.
TA audio narrative: chasing clear skies
The weather is wild in New Zealand ranging from hot days to storms with gale force winds.
TA audio narrative: hut life
In New Zealand, thousands of huts in the back country provide shelter for trampers.
TA Day 107, Hawea to Wanaka, 25 km
It rained nearly all night on the alicoop in this odd carved out campground above the hotel. Self-contained vehicles hemmed me in, but most everyone tucked in early enough. I read an interesting article about regret before I closed my eyes. The author used a phrase, ‘counterfactual thinking’ to describe the ‘what if’ stories we […]
