Greenstone to Te Anau

I was really anxious to get back on trail after the bike trip. Sean and I spent a great night in Queenstown and then hired a shuttle bus to take us to the TA trailhead at Greenstone about fifty miles from town. Kazu was walking into town on the same day and he shared a hostel room with us. It was great to connect with him again and catch up on our adventures over the last week. The road to the trailhead is not safe to walk – too narrow, no shoulder and very tight winding turns along the lake from Queenstown through Glenorchy and then around the head of the lake to the trailhead. The shuttle was quick and easy and we met a great couple from the UK – Jeannette and Richard along the way. The first day was a super easy seven miles to the Greenstone Hut. A big rainstorm came in that evening and we spent the night and morning hanging out in the hut with the other hikers. We had a great sleep and a lazy morning waiting out the rain. We headed out around 10AM in a light drizzle.

About five miles into the hike we came upon a stream that was raging after the storm. The water was really high and fast and it didn’t look very safe. We looked around for the best place to cross but there wasn’t anything obviously easy. I headed into the water and went immediately up to my waist and did my best to try to keep my pack dry. I used my poles to steady myself but they were getting pulled really hard in the fast current. I wedged my feet in between the rocks and reached up and grabbed a tree limb and pulled myself onto a rock and then jumped to the other shore. Sean made the crossing a little ways upstream and we both took a second to catch our breath after that one. It was right at the edge of what I am willing to try for river crossings but we made it across okay.

The rest of the hike was really beautiful. A mixture of tight forest single track and wide valleys that led us to Careys Hut perched on the shore of North Mavora Lake. Jeannette, Richard and Kazu shared the hut with us and we had fun making dinner and trading trail stories. I didn’t sleep well that night – a mixture of homesickness and also thinking about the end of the trail. This is a hard part of the hike for me. I can’t wait to be home but I’m also going to miss walking all day and being a dirtbag hiker. As hard as it is, I love it. Your problems are boiled down to miles to hike, food, feet and rest. I feel so accomplished at the end of the day and full of endorphins and sunshine. I laid awake most of the night missing Bryan and Chuck and finally got up around midnight to get some fresh air. As soon as I walked out of the hut I was struck by the stars. It was a perfectly cloudless sky and I was standing in a completely dark valley. The stars stretched from the north to south horizon and the Milky Way was clearly visible as were several of satellites circling the southern hemisphere. I can’t capture it with my phone camera but it was stunning and helped me reset. I returned to my bunk feeling better with the image of the bright sky helping me feel at peace.

Our next day started off with a fast and flat hike along the shores of Lake Mavora. It was cold at the start but the sun warmed me up quickly and Sean and I made good time to the lunch meeting spot. We hiked separately after lunch into Kiwi Burn Hut. The trail got a little more difficult with several dozen big downed trees to climb over. There must have been a big storm recently that toppled huge trees down and created a giant jumble of trunks and branches to try to get around or over. It was slow going but I finally got to Kiwi Burn around 3 PM. Shortly after I arrived, a young Kiwi couple showed up with their six month old Arther in tow. It was Arthur’s first trip to a hut and he was having a blast meeting all of the hikers and playing on his makeshift playpen in the hut. Jeannette and Richard joined us and we stayed up late chatting and planning the next day.

Our final day into Te Anau was a tough one. We started off with a river crossing and then to a difficult section of the trail – it was overgrown and really hard to follow in the high tussock. After about five miles of bushwhacking along a barbed wire fence, we ran across a private strip of land to meet the dirt road. It was much easier going for the rest of the twelve miles to the highway but pretty boring. We did have cell service finally so I was able to talk to Bryan and check in with friends back home. My buddy Ruth and I are reading book recommendations and we had some catching up to do.

I got to the highway intersection around 2:30 PM and grabbed lunch at a coffee stand and then hitched into Te Anau with a few NOBOs. Sean stayed behind a bit to relax and then met me at the hostel. We had a great dinner and I did laundry, grabbed food for the next section. Sean is going to spend some time in Milford Sound over the next few days while I get back in trail. I’m looking forward to some good long days ahead and meeting some more hikers. This is the last stretch to Bluff and it will be bittersweet for sure.