Saturday March 11, 2023 - Balclutha to Invercargill

 
We spent the entire day skimming along the southern coast on the Southern Scenic Route and the even more southern scenic roads. It was nice to get off RT 1 and the heavier (relatively) traffic. First stop was Nugget Point where there is a quick hike to an old light house. We saw sea lions basking below us with their pups playing in the tide pools. Chatted with a Canadian couple down to visit their daughter. We see a lot of people visiting from other UK commonwealth countries. Maybe they travel based on marmite being available. Still not sure what marmite is...

Next stop was the Cathedral Caves which are two huge sea caves that you can only go into during low tide. Low tide today was 11:45 am and by the time we drove the tiny road in, paid the nice man, hiked down the hill, and across the beach it was 12:30 and the tide was coming back in. Another 30 minutes and we would not have made it in. We wondered what would happen if you got stuck in there??

We hiked back out with a couple from Australia who originally moved here from South Africa. Nothing like a good conversation to make you forget about the return hike uphill from the beach. Next stop was the Whistling Frog for an afternoon cuppa. We had our usual cheese, salami, and crackers in the car for lunch with some fruit we picked up this morning but have not yet figured out tea and coffee on the road. There is no such thing as just coffee here. We are getting pretty spoiled with flat whites and chai lattes.

Next stop was Curio Bay, another seaside campground. Erick and Hannah camped here a few years ago and it is a pretty big campground. Not too busy, but we walked the bluff overlooking the sea and then walked the beach where we could see the dolphins playing out in the water. A young woman from England was there checking out the dolphins. She worked on the Isle of Skye studying dolphins and now has a job as a dolphin guide on a small cruise ship down here (100 people or so) touring Antarctica.

Our final stop in the Catlins was the southern most spot in New Zealand they call Slope Point. It's hard to believe the weather is so temperate here this far down. The wind here was intense and any tree around was deformed in a bent over fashion due to the constant wind. We hiked back to the car and headed to Invercargill. This is a pretty good sized town, around 50,000 people. We found our AirBnB and drove downtown to walk around a bit and get supper. We found Speight's Ale House and got a couple of big salads. We parked right next to the hardware store where Burt Munro's Indian motorcycle is (back tomorrow) and walked just a few blocks to the Motorcycle Mecca museum which I'll visit tomorrow.

It will be nice to spend a couple nights in one place.

Friday March 10, 2023 - Oamaru to Balclutha

 Who comes up with these town names? Between the British influence and the Maori history, I can't tell which ones are whose names.

We slept in at the Brydone Hotel in downtown Oamaru. It is in one of the old stone buildings and it used to be a huge hotel. Now the downstairs is full of meeting and conference rooms and our room is one of several upstairs. Deb caught a double rainbow out the hotel window this morning. 

We went for a walk this morning to find the Countdown grocery store to look for a particular gorp mix we stumbled on. We also re-upped our fruit and veggie supplies and the nice lady at the "check yourself out" aisle said we should go to the Short Black coffee shop. One cool thing with the self checkout here is that there is a camera overhead that takes a picture of what you are checking out and tries to identify what it is. Round red thing is an apple? Long orange thing is a carrot? Not super accurate but pretty cool that they're trying it. This ain't no third rate country when it comes to technology.

So off to the Short Black to get a flat white for me and a chai latte for Deb. Then back to the room, packed, and headed back south on Rt1.   

But first stop is a weird little rock outcropping on the beach called Moeraki Boulders Beach. These things are round, there are only a dozen or two, and there doesn't appear to be any reason for them to be here. There were quite a few people on the beach as it was low tide and a good time to see them.

Back on Rt 1 with the trucks. This is the major road so trucks are to be expected. It is also a narrow road with a speed limit 100 kph (62 mph) so reasonable.

We had to get gas and we have been having trouble getting the serve yourself gas pumps to accept our credit cards. It keeps saying it didn't get a PIN number, but it never asked me for one? So we've learned to stop at places with a real person inside.

We stopped at the Moeraki Tavern for lunch and had a nice chat with the owner. Same story we hear everywhere, they can't get help so they limit their hours and offerings. Covid affected everyone here.

Next stop was Dunedin. This town is big, about 128,000 people. This is a historic port town, port still in operation, and it was settled by Scottish folks in the mid-1800's. In the late 1800's they built a lot of beautiful buildings and a beautiful train station. We found a parking spot downtown and started by touring the railway station. Very ornate with nice glazed tiles and stained glass windows. These guys were showing off for sure.

There is an amazing museum just down the street, which is also free, and it is very modern and high tech and does a nice job explaining when and how everyone got here. Lots of ocean crossings, early whaling business (oil for lamps), and then what really put them on the map was when refrigerated cargo ships were invented and they started exporting meat. Mostly sheep I imagine, just like today. We have seen 3 or 4 double decker sheep transport trucks on the road the last couple days, some empty and some full. I suppose they all end up as frozen lamb chops on ships.

We spent quite a while in the museum and then walked into the center of town to a central park called the Octagon. Lots of Friday after work pub gatherings spilling into the streets. 

Back to the car and back on Rt 1 south. We ended up at the Helensborough Motor Inn in Balclutha, where the nice owner showed us around. We walked down the hill, across the bridge, and found the Raj Indian Restaurant and both had a delicious curry and rice. Then one last grocery store check and walk back up the hill to our room.

Thursday March 9, 2023 - Akaroa to Oamaru

 Our hotel was great, but I must admit those sleeping bags were pretty cozy the last few nights, and we woke up this morning back in the civilized world. Today's plan is to drive down the coast to Oamaru and stop on the way to see Deb’s college friend's daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter on their farm in Leeston just an hour and a half south of Akaroa. 

The windy road off the peninsula gave us nice vistas again but you need to keep a watchful eye on the big trucks on the narrow twisty road. They use a lot of double trailer trucks here which you only see in the states up on the interstates. Sometimes they need more than their lane on the tight corners.

After heading back near Christchurch, we went south on Rt 1. This seaside land offers large flat plots of farm land and the grass is green and freshly mowed. I can see signs of more dairy, less sheep, and very little beef being raised down here. Rt 1 is the “big road” that goes down the entire South Island. After taking some small side roads we arrived at David and Ali Ackerman’s farm. Their father greeted us, a Swiss man who moved here and started the farm 26 years ago. 

They milk a few hundred Ayrshire cows twice a day. It appears that they buy most of their feed from nearby (corn and hay) and most of their milk goes to a processor called Fonterra that converts it to dry powder and exports it. A lot goes to China. Their milking barn is all outdoors with a roof over it since the climate is so mild here. Their young daughter Esther, 16 months old, kept her parents busy and kept us entertained. She will grow up a real farm girl for sure. We had coffee and tea (with real maple syrup!!) and their dad offered lunch, but we declined since we had a lot left to see today and these folks have to run their farm.

Next stop was Timaru which seems like a small town on the coast, but we took the back streets and ended up driving around the huge seaport with containers and docks and cranes and trucks. We found a park and had lunch (crackers, cheese, ham, fruit) and then headed south on Rt 1 again.

Our final stop was Oamaru, which was overbuilt in the late 1800’s. By this I mean they had hoped this would be the big port city and it was, but the shoreline here was a bit too rough and even after building a large infrastructure, they failed and the city basically went out of business. What is left behind is a nice sized town with beautiful, ornate, limestone buildings on every street. It is the home of “steam punk” which, I may get this wrong being of advanced age, is a fantasy world where steam powered machinery runs features.
Think weird people flying steam powered air balloons.

We had dinner across the street at Fat Sally’s and I got my first real Guinness of the trip.

Deb set up a penguin show for dusk tonight. There is a penguin reserve here in town with 380 bird boxes which help the penguins successfully mate and raise their young. They have been able to grow their penguin population by setting this area aside. The penguins mate for life and  together raise the next generation. They live to be 7 or 8 years old. They plant microchips in each bird so they can track them and learn their habits to help them be successful. One parent stays behind to mind the egg and the other leaves at 5 am to hunt and does not return until dusk. They fish all day and then crawl back each night. The parents take turns fishing each day and when the  young (they have two eggs at a time) get bigger, they both have to fish each day. Once the young are almost full size, the parents actually cut back the amount of food they bring home, which forces the youngsters to go fish for themselves. They have a live webcam so you can see them any time.

The beach where they go into and out of the water is just a rocky shore and the penguins return in “rafts” or groups of a dozen or so at a time. We saw about 50 penguins climb on shore during our time there. They stop to cool off once they get to shore and then waddle off to their respective bird boxes. There were a bunch of big seals lying around watching the penguins come in to shore. They don’t hunt them but I assume they just annoy them.

So back to the hotel and off to bed. Another great NZ day.

Wednesday March 8, 2023 - Stony Bay to Akaroa

Deb here. This morning we ate our breakfast, sadly packed up our belongings, settled up our bill in the store's honesty box, and said goodbye to Stony Bay. What a special spot and very hard to leave! There was a beautiful rainbow as we were leaving, and no one was sure whether that was a good or a rainy weather sign.

The track climbed out of the bay and up the valley, starting for the first quarter of the day as a nicely graded track. We were climbing, but gradually, and a light rain actually kept us cool as we climbed. Somewhere along the way the terrain shifted, and next thing we knew we were climbing up steeply, going through a dense bush area. The trail reminded me of many New England hikes, when there are no switchbacks, just a steady and steep uphill ascent. The vegetation, however, is so different from anything we're accustomed to, with tree ferns, huge red beech trees, and all sorts of unidentifiable plants. We also had beautiful birdsong to accompany us.

After a long and (did I mention?) steep climb, we ultimately reached the saddle. At this point there were a bunch of other tracks crisscrossing ours, which made for interesting sign reading. The Banks Track signage is excellent, however, so we never had a problem finding our way. We crossed paths a few times with Anne, Brian, Rodney, and Michelle.

The first bit of downhill was lovely, with a wide grassy path heading down at a moderate grade. And of course the views were spectacular... by this time the rain had stopped and the day was turning hotter and sunnier. Eventually the trail turned narrower, steeper, and rockier, making for slower going. Poor Milo has real trouble with downhill, and this wasn't a good path for him. 

The end destination was the car park, not all the way down into the village, where we'd get into our car and DRIVE down to pick up our gear in Akaroa. Well, somewhere along the way Milo realized that he'd left the car key in the gear being transported to the village, meaning a car with no key at the car park. We decided I'd leave him and hurry down the trail to catch up with others and possibly get a ride into town. 

I hustled and could finally see Brian and Rodney in the distance, but saw that they were walking into town without a car (later learned that Rodney had made the same mistake as Milo). I made it to the locked luggage storage spot, grabbed the key, and started the mile-long slog back up to the car. I was a bit up the road when Rodney and Michelle saw me and offered me a ride to the car park. Once there, I waited for John to arrive. 

When I saw him amble toward the car I knew he was hurting. We drove into town, retrieved our bags, and picked up a couple of cold drinks to drink in the shade at the local Four Square (NZ grocery chain). We had a nice chat with two NZ women who were in town with a tramping group for a few days. After hydrating, we drove to our motel for the night, the Tresori Motor Lodge. Comfortable place and really welcome after the walk. Showers, laundry, a nap for Milo, and dinner at Bully Hayes Restaurant (burger sliders and a salad for me, whitebait omelet for John), and a walk along the Akaroa waterfront. On the way back to the motor lodge we ran into Anne and gave her a ride to her air bnb. 

All in all, a wonderful time on the Banks Track!

Tuesday Mar 7, 2023 - Banks Trak Day 2

 

Breakfast this morning was oatmeal and blueberries, coffee and tea. I think coffee and tea are written in the New Zealand Bill of Rights as every place we stay in it's provided. Plenty of room and everyone slept like kings after yesterday's long haul. Today was the easy and picturesque day and it was pure magic. This section was billed as 8 km and not too much climbing. It rises out of Flea Bay and then meanders around the ocean front grassy meadows. Milo is the oldest and also the slowest but we pass each other during lunch breaks and there is a part of you that does not want to hurry and not fully absorb the views. Last night in Flea Bay we saw one penguin nesting in a hole in the bank. Today we caught some seals with their young in Seal Cave. We also saw a lot of seals as we came into Stony Bay this afternoon. They were on Stony Bay beach in a small "kiddie pool" made of stone on one side of the bay.

It was beautiful weather and breezy. New Zealand is "tropical" since they are surrounded by water and the humidity is mid to high and the temperatures do not vary much between day and night. Lots and lots of vegetation, kind of rain forest like in the valleys, and wide open grassland (for the sheep to nibble on} everywhere else. We must have crossed a dozen fences today going from one pasture to another. 

Milo's personal quest today was to search out new and different sheep droppings. They are everywhere so you have to watch your step.

Stony Bay Cottages are so cute it is ridiculous. As you walk in you think you are entering a hobbit village with tiny little hobbit houses and firewood stacked everywhere. The shower is built into a tree so you hang your clothes on the tree and get real hot water with propane powered heaters. There is no electricity here so each of our little hobbit houses has candles. There is a wood stove in the middle of the lawn that became the social circle in the evening. There is a small store where you can buy food and drinks on an honor system. We picked up some sausage, potatoes, and peas, and the meat was grilled on a communal barbecue grill (thanks Kathy) and we boiled potatoes and peas in our little house. Each house has a two burner gas stove (match light). There were two shared toilets with funky wooden "Yes" and "No" tags to tell folks it was occupied.

There were two wood fired bathtubs and they got at least one working so a few had wood fired baths. In addition Stony Bay offers an outdoor pool table, badminton net, and fruit trees {including a ripe apple tree, a peach tree with almost ripe peaches, and kiwi vines).

We sat around the wood stove until 8:30 or so sharing goodies, and a bottle of dark rum was consumed as was most of a bottle of Fireball. Each night we get to know our fellow hikers a little more and they are all wonderful. A perfect day.

Monday Mar 6, 2023 - Banks Trak Day 1

 

We are hiking what is called the Banks Track or Banks Peninsula Track. The local folks got together to see what they could  do to augment their income after a period of drought and poor economics, and in 1989 they offered a hiking adventure to 300 people or so. They had land and a beautiful spot to hike so why not? They still offer the hike and now get between 1800-2600 hikers per year. We signed up for the three day trip, which means you hike 12 km the first day, 8 km the second day, and 11 km the third day. It’s a loop so you end up near where you started and where your car is parked. Today was day 1, and we climbed the highest peak (699 meters) on the track.  

The bunk house last night was fun with everybody getting to know everyone. There’s a large shared kitchen so we all cook our own meals and bring our own food. This morning we made oatmeal, yogurt and fruit with coffee & tea. Two of the men were doing the whole track in 2 days so they left early. Andrew and Ali left early as well but most everyone else left around 8:30 or so. Deb and I bumped into the local property owner and got his whole story. Multi generations here on this land but no more farming (sheep I suppose). He now does “pest control” which  means trapping and poisoning possums. Possums were brought here from Australia and they have no predators so the population exploded. The main damage they do

is climbing trees and eating the tender new growth, along with eating bird eggs. The bird population drops and after a few years the trees die. So the government pays people to reduce the possum population. They trap and bait them and we passed dozens of traps on the ground or in trees.

He advised us not to go too fast on the first part of the track since it’s straight up the mountain. And it was. But the views were spectacular in every direction. We crisscrossed with another threesome all day and we made it to the high summit by 11:30 through slow and steady plodding. There are lots of fences to cross between sheep pastures and the sheep just look us over as we walk through. No cows today, but they do

raise them here. We stopped for lunch part way down the other side and then descended almost as rapidly as we climbed in the morning. My knees are happy campers going up hill, but downhill just kills my right knee so it was slow going. The hiking poles were a godsend. The descent was not through open pastures with ocean views, but rather followed the stream bed through the gully that goes all the way to Flea Bay. Although it was lushly beautiful terrain, it had rained the two previous days so the trail was very muddy with a sticky clay like soil. It took from 11:30 until 2:30 to get all the way down, so not too bad. We were treated to a few waterfalls and swimming holes and a lot of slippery muddy rocks to navigate through. We got cleaned up and then all hung out in various groups

getting to know each other tonight. Another common cooking/eating night with 11 people total. Tomorrow is a shorter day (I hope).

Sunday Mar 5, 2023 - Christchurch to Akaroa

Very classy hotel last night. Washer / dryer / dishwasher, the works. I could live here. We walked to the Unknown Charter Coffee Roasters and we ordered porridge, huge steaming bowls, and flat white coffee and chai latte. I am getting to be a regular with ordering coffee, as long as I order the same thing every day.

Today’s mission was to get to the walking trip start place in Akaroa and buy enough food for the three day hike, pack it in with the other clean clothes we will need, leave all the stuff we do not need in the car, and get taken away to the first night hostel place. Maybe cell service and maybe not. Probably electricity, but probably not.

Car was full so OK on gas. The trip down was easy peasey . You leave Christchurch quickly and the road is a straight shot down. 

We got to Akaroa around noon and drove around a bit. We do not have to meet the bus until 5 pm so lots of time. We hit the museum and got the short history film (Bisbee needs one of these). The Maori were here 700 years ago, and then the British and French came to set up a port here in the early 1800’s. The Brits signed agreements with the natives behind the French’s back and the French left after 5-10 years. There was a whaling industry here first but that petered out. Then they harvested all the trees (and still do). Following that they grew a kind of grass here that was so hardy, they started harvesting the seed for sale. As many as 1,500 seasonal workers harvesting grass seed.

Gold was discovered on the island and other mining. Akaroa became a tourist spot because of the mild weather and pretty seaside. And it is still a tourist spot with small cruise ships pulling in now and again.

We split fish and chips for a late lunch, bought a sandwich for dinner and by then it was time to park the car (a mile away from where we met the bus). The parking spot was a crazy steep series of roads and a small grass lot where 6 or 7 cars could fit. I walked back to the other hikers waiting for the bus and we had about 13 people ready to go by 5:30 or so. 

What a fun bunch of people. We were the only Americans, one German woman and the rest are New Zealand folks. The bus dropped us off at the hut way up a twisty ocean view road a half hour later with instructions on what to do tomorrow. This place has electricity and running water, toilets, a shower, and lots of bunk bed rooms so plenty of places for the 13 of us to settle in. Two men are doing the walk in only 2 days, so we have 11 in the main building, with the 2 fast walkers housed in a separate cabin.

Everybody made their own dinner and we all ate and talked until 8:30 or so, then off to bed.

Saturday March 4, 2023 = Reefton to Christchurch

The cold is subsiding and thanks to modern medicine my nose stopped running. Still a little wheezy but definitely on the mend. We walked up the short main street of Reefton (did I mention it was the first town in NZ to get electric lights?) and a lone old BMW motorcycle putted up the street and stopped in front of a coffee shop and bakery, obviously the place to go. He was followed briefly by about six more of like and mixed vintage bikes all stopping at the same place. I chatted one biker up briefly and then Deb and I got cheese scones with butter and jam, of course along with the usual coffee (flat white I have learned to say) and Deb's chai latte. The bikers were loading up the day's trip, all in the 60-70 year old range, old friends.

Back down the street and found that the Bearded Miners Hut had just opened for the day. A couple of ZZ Top looking men were operating the miners shack that the Rotary Club had built for tourists 35 years ago. They had a fire going inside and they were hungry to share their wisdom. Both had great grandparents who came here in the mid to late 1800's. A couple of other older guys stopped by to chat and read the paper while we were there so this must be the morning men's club as well.

The gold rush hit NZ around 1848 when they found alluvial gold they could pan for and later gold embedded in quartz they had to hard rock mine. Then they added coal mining. They still mine gold and coal. These guys loved to talk so we spent a long time here getting all the NZ history and a little politics (Greens vs the mines, etc). He told us that the west coast is different than the east coast. "What you see is what you get" on the west coast. Things are simpler over here.

We then scored an AC adapter for our phone charger which we couldn't find anywhere at the airport. It was in a gas station for $10NZ ($6.2 USD). The woman there also filled us in on how things were going, Covid, etc. She, her son and her husband who drives a truck love their little town after living in Christchurch. Crazy nice people.

We loaded up the car and headed for Lewis Pass. Lewis Pass is the mountain pass to get us back to the east coast. There are hiking trails everywhere with tidy green and yellow signs. Short hikes, long hikes, you name it. We stopped at Lewis Pass and took a short scenic hike to get some pictures.

Next stop was Hanmer Springs, where they have a big commercialized hot springs complex. The town of 800 people started after WWI treating shell shocked troops in the warm sulfur waters. It bumped along as a remote healing place until sometime in the 1960's when they did a big development push, and it is now a big draw for the city of Christchurch an hour and a half away. Since it was Saturday afternoon the place was packed and wall to wall families up for the weekend. Too crowded for us, but we were able to walk through the place and see all the pools. Very kid friendly. Maybe come back on a week day.

We did the crackers and cheese thing for lunch and then on to Christchurch where Deb scored a really nice hotel. The traffic got faster and more aggressive. We stopped for gas ($2.40NZD per liter * 3.78 liters per gallon * $0.62 USD/NZD = $5.62 USD/gallon) and a local man helped us understand the self serve gas pumps there. He raises and exports venison and has been to the US a few times. Everyone here goes out of their way to chat.

Once back in Christchurch and checked in we walked to a place called Little High which is a collection of restaurants where you order from one or more kitchens and everyone sits in a large food court area. We chatted up a couple visiting from England who were visiting a son who moved to Australia. This sounded like a regular trip for them. We occasionally hear American accents but not as much as we would think.

We spent the rest of the evening walking around the downtown area and New Regent's Street where Deb had been before with Hannah and Erick three years ago. They have a tram you can ride that also has a restaurant on it. Christchurch seems a pretty hip modern city with the bonus of having all these nice Kiwis living here.

Friday Mar 3, 2023 Arthur’s Pass to Reefton

 

Well Milo must have slept 20 of the last 24 hours but is feeling on the upswing. We cleared out of the Arthur’s Pass Air BnB and got ready to leave but we had to wait for a call back from the Banks Track contact to find out if we can shift our dates by two days. Deb got an email saying we could and we then knew we had time to do a 2 day loop to the west coast and then north somehow. The road over Arthur’s Pass is wiggly, 2 lanes and pretty narrow. We saw a side road which took us on the scenic route to Greymouth and we stopped at Lake Brunner for coffee, chai latte, and a shared blueberry muffin. Nice view and a nice young Canadian woman (Ottawa) who moved here three years ago who waited on us. I can see how you could get stuck here after visiting.

We ended up in Greymouth and found a big grocery store to stock up. We need food to take on the Bank Trak and we also wanted a cooler for the month long car trip (lunches). They are not called coolers here but are instead called “chilly bins”. So off to a Mitre 10 Mega store which is like our Home Depot where we found every size chilly bin you could imagine along with reusable ice packs (chilly packs?) for freezing. We tend to eat breakfast and dinners out but lunch is usually cheese and snacks, hence the chilly bin.

Our next excitement was Milo getting too close to the curb while parking in Greymouth and scraping the left front tire and rim, which then popped off the wheel cover and made the tire flat. It was raining of course so we sat on the sidewalk reading the manual to figure out where the jack was hidden .  I put the little fake tire on and a man walked by who told us that the tire store only 2 blocks away could replace the tire (it had a hole cut in it I assume from the rim). Sure enough, we pulled in just as someone was pulling out and 15 minutes later we were back on the road with a new tire and scratched up wheel cover. Sometimes things just work out.

Then on to Blackball, which is a tiny old gold and then coal mining town. When the coal mine closed in the 60’s, hippies moved in and now it’s a small tourist town with a salami shop and a hotel/bar called Formerly the Blackball Hilton. Deb bought me a beer at the hotel (to cure my cold) and we chatted up some Australian bicycle guys who were biking the length of the South Island and staying there the night.

Last stop was Reefton where Deb found a room with a restaurant attached which sounded good since it was misting out. Fish and chips, orange roughy pan-fried fish, cider, beer and live music (Beatles oldies). Life is good.

Thursday March 2, 2023 - Arthur's Pass

Deb here, as the guest blogger for the day. Usually I just do editing, but poor John has a nasty cold and ended up spending all day in our Air BnB, asleep for much of it. We'd both hoped that he might sleep it off and feel better today, but no such luck.

I took my time in the morning, since this was the first day that we didn't need to get up at the "butt crack" of dawn to catch a flight, which was lovely. Arthur's Pass Village is in the heart of the mountains, with views every way you look. The morning started out a bit cloudy, but the weather turned sunny as the day wore on. 

I wandered over to the store/cafe mid-morning, in search of some soup for John, but no such luck. I did score a yogurt, apple, chicken sandwich for later, and some chips, along with a free packet of "lemsip" (apparently a must for cold relief, according to the clerk). Back at the cabin, John continued to sleep and I looked into my options for the day. There's all kinds of short walks and hiking here, called tramping in NZ. 

When I was here in 2020 with Hannah and Erick we'd planned a 2 night backpacking adventure, following the Edwards Hawdon route. The plan was for a hike to the Edwards Hut the first day, stay there, and then climb a mountain pass the second day, staying in the Hawdon Hut, and then back down to Arthur's Pass. All was going beautifully, including the weather, until an hour away from the Edwards Hut on the second day Erick slipped and broke his ankle. This resulted in a helicopter rescue for Erick and a very long day of hiking and driving for Hannah and me, but that's a story for another day.

So... back to today. Yesterday at Castle Hill we'd run into a Backroads group, and I'd had a chance to chat with one of their guides. Backroads is a competitor of Country Walkers, and I've had the opportunity to run into their groups at other times. I talked with their guide a bit and asked her for their South Island itinerary, and she mentioned that the group was based in Arthur's Pass for 2 nights, and that tomorrow they'd be hiking the Bealey Spur Track. I figured that if Backroads was hiking that trail it must be a good one.

At about noon I woke John up (briefly) and told him of my plan to hike the Bealey Spur Track. I put my pack together, grabbed the car keys, and headed the few miles to the trailhead. This was my first time driving on the left side of the road and it wasn't bad. Fortunately the traffic was light and I didn't have any roundabouts to contend with, so I made it to my destination incident free. By this time it was a gorgeous day, with lots of sun and puffy clouds.

I parked and walked up to the trailhead and part of the Backroads group was there, with the same guide I'd met yesterday. I chatted with the group and had a total flashback to my time guiding Country Walkers groups. The group there had been the ones to turn around early, but they'd loved the hike. One man said twice "this was the most technical hike I've ever done", which made me wonder what was up ahead!

Anyway, a great hike that started through a beech forest, and was very reminiscent of hiking on the Long Trail in Vermont. Lots of moss, lush greenness, and many exposed roots to walk around/over (guessing the roots were what the Backroads guest had referred to as "technical"?). I felt as though I was back hiking in New England.

As I got higher the landscape changed. I popped out of the woods and into brown grass (called "tussocks" here). The views just kept getting more spectacular, with the trail occasionally going back into the woods before opening up into the tussocks once again. I think the best word to use to describe the landscape here is "expansive", with everything so grand. Simply wonderful.

The trail went up to the Bealey Spur Hut, but I stopped a bit before then since I didn't want to be gone too long. Along the way I ran into two more clusters of Backroads guests and their guides, and they wer
e all super happy with the walk. I turned around and headed down, figuring I hiked maybe 6-7 miles total, but I didn't have any way of tracking my route since my phone is in airplane mode. We'd hoped to get a SIM card for my phone but that hasn't happened yet.

I returned back to the Air BnB around 4:15 and John was still sleeping, poor guy. After a shower and cold drink, I wandered over to the Wobbly Kea Restaurant to see about takeout for dinner. They're as understaffed and overworked as the folks at the store/cafe, so by 5:30 they weren't allowing any more dine-in business, only takeout. I put in an order for a Wobbly pizza, and walked toward the other end of the town while I was waiting. Picked up the pizza, walked back to our place, and spent the rest of the evening thinking about plans for what comes next. We're supposed to start our walking trek on the Banks Track tomorrow, but our plans might change. Stay tuned!