Te Anau to Birchwood
Day 83: Te Anau to Aparima Hut (18km / 8 hrs)
Our day started with an amazing breakfast at the Sandfly Cafe. One of the best I have had for a long time.
Our favourite street sign which is in Te Anau.
We then checked out of the holiday park and found a good spot to hitch back on to the trail.
We had barely been there 30 seconds when someone came out of the nearest store and offered us a lift! Not only that but they were locals just heading home (in the opposite direction of where we were going) but they insisted that they had time on their hands and were happy to take us.
And so we met Rosie and Gai. They told us they had picked up another TA walker about a week ago and had sweet talked the farmer so they could drive him all the way along the road which crossed his land to the first hut. They figured he would recognise them, and their car, so offered to do the same for us! This saved us walking 6km along Princhester Road so we accepted their kind offer and settled in for the ride.
We told them they were Trail Angels. They had not heard of this before but were very interested and keen to do more for TA walkers. They even talked about opening up their home / camper van for walkers in the future. The loveliest couple.
The first hut looked quite interesting with ornate bunk beds.
At the first hut there was a sign saying that it would take 8 hours to get to the next hut (where we were planning to stay). A long day lay ahead, even without having to walk the first 6km.
It was a really varied track. It started off quite tree - rooty (technical term) through a forest and slow going. It then entered an area of slow going tussock. It then seemed to yo-yo between the two. In some areas it got quite boggy and there were many areas of soft spongy moss.
Some of the tussock was taller than me! It was very easy to get temporarily lost and almost claustrophobic. There were also a few “holes” which you would not want to step in to so it definitely would not be a track we would want to tackle in the dark.
We broke out in to open ground at one stage and had a steep climb up to a random trig (random as it did not look like the nearest high point) before heading down to the hut.
A really varied day. I can’t say it was my favourite but we seemed to cover a reasonable amount of ground.
Day 84: Aparima Hut to Telford Campsite (23.5km / 10:15 hrs)
A bit of a slow start today as the enthusiasm was slightly lacking (my side, not Roger’s). However once we got going we soon got in to the swing of it again with another swing bridge early on and lovely views looking back to the hut from the other side of the river.
Even though it was fairly late in the day and we knew we had another four hours to go, we stopped at the Lower Wairaki hut for a coffee before carrying on.
We then had a BIG steep climb up through more forest and it seemed to take forever to come out at the top but boy oh boy, when we did it was AMAZING!! We had stunning 360 views and could even see Bluff in the distance.
We stayed up there for a good ten minutes or so. For two reasons: (1) Roger wanted to wait for the light to change to take more photos and (2) I had a phone signal and wanted to arrange a shuttle to the pub for tomorrow night!! Priorities….
We then walked down down down to the Telford campsite. This basically consisted of a long drop toilet near a stream for water. It would not have been too bad if it had not been for the sandflies. There were thousands of them! One advantage of getting there so late in the day was that we only had to put up the tent, eat and it was pretty much time for bed (for us and the sandflies who apparently cannot see in the dark so don’t bite at night - phew!)
A mixed day. The first forest got a bit tedious and it felt a bit like it was just a link track to take us further south. However, the views at the top of the second section made it all worthwhile.
Day 85: Telford campsite to Birchwood Hut (through Mt Linton Station) (30.5km / 8 hrs)
Mt Linton is the largest station in NZ. We are very lucky that the owners allow TA walkers to cross their land. However, they have placed a number of restrictions, two of which are that you have to cross their land during daylight hours and you are not allowed to camp. This made me a little apprehensive as we knew it was going to be about 28km and I was not sure whether my injury was going to behave itself today.
With all these things in mind we got up at 6am and packed up the tent in the dark. We were walking by about 7.30am, just as it was getting light.
The trail app had said there were some “undulations”. Another way to say this could be some reasonable hills - both up and down!
Whilst these were a little of a surprise, these hills did give us impressive views of the Humpridge range and back over some of where we have been.
Sadly we turned off the 4WD track and followed the fence line in to a horrendous field of turnips (or were they swedes?)
I don’t have a problem with either vegetable in principle but the ground was so uneven under foot it was classic roll-ankle-territory. In fact Roger did which has since proved to be quite painful.
The last two hours of today’s walk was quite tough going as pretty uneven underfoot (even without the turnips/swedes). We were both really pleased to get out of there and on to the road to our accommodation.
Birchwood hut was a couple of kilometers along the road, part of Birchwood Station. It is privately owned but set up for TA walkers. It is pretty rustic with old chairs and sofas on the veranda (one with its own resident mouse living in it apparently), a rustic bunk room, living room with small kitchen and bathroom. All we need and more!
On arrival a couple of NOBOs told us the shuttle to the pub was coming in about 20 minutes so we both had quick showers and off to the pub (via the supermarket to resupply - how good is that for service?) we went!
The shuttle is organised and driven by the landlord (or one of his staff) of the Takitimu Tavern. This pub is in a small village called Wairio and is basically the only thing there.
The supermarket (well, Four Square) is in a town called Nightcaps - so called apparently because on seeing the low
Cloud over their twin hills, some
famous old guy from a long time ago said “they look like they have their nightcaps on”. Nothing to do with a small Baileys or whisky at the end of a big night then!!
Anyway - back to the pub. We were both pretty hungry and seemed to inhale our garlic bread, burgers, fries and sticky date pudding! Yum!
One of the NOBOs we had met at the hut decided to buy a round of whisky for everyone. This was followed by some French brandy(?) called Chartreuse (or something like that) and a couple of people even had a cognac! Not the typical TA drinks that is for sure but I bet the landlord was glad he had picked us lot up that day! Being the lightweight I am I just stuck to beer but the others seemed to be pretty happy!
One of the bar staff took us back to the hut and we were delighted to see that Charlie had arrived. He left Queenstown two days after us and had put in some long days (50km today, for example) to catch up with us. And so our TA family was back together and we knew that the six of us would be together from here until Bluff.
Although it was not the most enjoyable trail today, the evening in the pub made up for it!
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