Days 148-155: To the Ocean!

This trail definitely doesn't want to end with a whimper. We knocked off our last forest sections, but they didn't go quite as easily as we had hoped. Now we're in Riverton, on the southern coast, and can just about see Bluff from here. Out of our entire 3,000 km journey, all we have left is a rounding error (we actually hit km 3,000 today, Bluff is at km 3,063).


Leaving Karen and Te Anau was like going back to the real world - no more short days or fancy food. This is serious business! We caught a ride from town back to the trail with a friendly kiwi who was involved in running all sorts of outdoor tourist activities. He dropped us off at the trailhead, and we headed through some farmland toward the Takitimu mountains.

Poor traumatized sheep

The "Takis," as our ride called them, were surprisingly beautiful. I think we had both assumed we had left the best parts of the trail behind already, and were a little bit in the "get it done" mindset, but we really enjoyed the mixed forest, mountain, and tussock terrain.

Dirt specks on the camera lens :(

Nice light on the river

Sorry river, you'll have to go back the other way

Evening light on the mountains

The Takatimus

We stayed at Aparimu Hut our first night. The next day we were planning on pushing past the next hut, Lower Wairaki, until we realized it was the last real hut on the whole trail! We got a little sentimental, took stock of our food, and decided to take a half day and savor it.

Cooking by candlelight in the hut

One of the few spiderwebs that didn't end up on my face

Idyllic

These look safe to eat

After Lower Wairaki, we had another short day to the Telford campsite, the last available camping before a long stretch over private land. We were treated to a surprise vista when we emerged from the forest after a decent climb, and found ourselves looking out over Southland, with views that might have stretched all the way to the coast.

Looking south - we could see our last 2 forests

This view was a total surprise

After staying at Telford, we had a cold wake-up and sandfly filled morning in our tent (we missed the huts already). We trekked out across Mt. Linton Station, which, after reading some signs, sounds like it is raising genetically modified cows. I wonder if they have isolated the "scare Liz" gene yet.

Can't get tired of the river valley views

Cloudy, windy day

Rolling green hills

That afternoon involved one of our last real climbs, which gave us great views back to the Takitimus. Before our climb, we stopped at a house along the way to fill up our water, and meet the cutest little old lady, who sent us off with a pair of nectarines - delicious!

Rainbow eucalyptus

Rain on the Takatimu Range

On top of one of our last hills!

This pine tree thinks it is a cactus

That night, we camped at the end of a remote 4wd track. We chose our tent spot with great foresight (read: we got lucky), as it rained quite a bit that night, and every other flat spot nearby turned into a puddle. Did I mention we missed the huts?

Spooky morning light in the forest

The next day, we made our way out of the forest, then made a strategic stop in Otautau to pick up groceries. After a tasty burger at the local cafe, we caught a ride back to the trail, and pushed on. We expected to find a decent campsite off of the forestry road we were walking on, but flat, open spots were few and far between. We eventually got lucky and found a little clearing that was just barely big enough for our tent.

Not the roomiest campsite ever, but it'll do

The next morning, day 153, we entered the last forest section of the trail - Longwood Forest. I kind of expected it to be a cakewalk. I mean, really, could it be worse than what we've been through so far?

Turns out, the answer is always yes. The route itself was relatively easy. (Except for the mud. Mud like we haven't seen since the north island.) The weather, however, did not cooperate. We spent most of the afternoon on a ridge, parts of it exposed, inside a cloud with gales blowing us sideways. It was also one of those parts of the trail where there is no trail - just occasional poles to show you which direction to go. Seeing from one pole to the next was hard to impossible, and often we were just edging forward, hoping we'd spot the next one before we lost sight of the previous one. For extra fun, we started to get mildly hypothermic towards the end. Luckily it wasn't very cold - just wet and very windy - or we probably would have had to drop off the ridge and wait out the weather.

Just off the ridge we came across a tent. We were surprised to find anyone else out here! Turns out it was Kyle and Renee, two brave souls just starting out on the trail, headed northbound. They had a hard time navigating on the ridge and had decided to wait out the weather. We chatted a bit before heading on. Hope the weather cooperates more with them as they get into the serious mountains further north!

We happily arrived at Martin's Hut, truly the last hut on the trail. It is described as "historic" and "welcome shelter in poor weather." Both were true - it was pretty old, but was dry and had brand new bunk beds. We were definitely glad it was there.

We can see the ocean!

The next day we awoke with the promise of a real bed, and maybe even clean, dry socks awaiting us at the end of the day. We spent most of the day following an old "water race" used for gold mining. It was basically a 20 km long, 4 foot wide trench dug at roughly the same elevation around a forested mountain. To maintain constant elevation, it followed every contour of the hillside. So we spent the day walking on a flat trail that zig zagged back and forth endlessly. It was nice for the first few kms, but after a few hours it was a bit monotonous, and we were happy to come out to the end of it.

Purple mushrooms. Schmiermund, Joe G., keep the jokes to yourselves

More mushrooms

Only 28 hours - maybe we'll push through today?

We stopped for the night at a house directly across from the trailhead, and stayed with Scott and Hannah, who are renting out a cute little cottage at a reasonable rate to TA hikers. We really enjoyed hanging out with them and their terminally cute kids. We even had a little woodstove in our room, and were able to warm up and dry out our shoes a bit with a fire that night. A highly recommended stop for any future trampers!

Speaking of shoes, a quick digression. Our shoes smell awful. This is no normal bad shoe smell. It's like a fungus or an algae is growing an empire in them. Ever since we crossed the gross Mararoa River weeks ago, they've had this distinct odor, and it's just been getting worse. Right now they are locked away in the closet in our room, otherwise we'd be overpowered by the stench. I apologize in advance to anyone sitting near us on the 13 hour flight from Auckland in a few weeks.

Anyway, on day 155 we headed out for a coastal walk to Riverton. It was surprisingly slow going. We were expecting a beach cruise, but ended up climbing up and down hills along the coast, with soft, pebbly sand in between. The terrain was stunning though.

Water coming through a hole in the rock

Weathered rocks on Colac Bay

We took a lot of rock pictures.

We arrived in Riverton today, and spent the afternoon trying to plan our Stewart Island trip. We also tried not to think too much about our last two days on the trail. They will be long and probably relatively boring - all flat beach and road (some of it busy highway). And after that we will be out of trail.

It definitely has not sunk in yet. Every time it threatens to, I just think about Stewart Island. I think I will feel lost when I don't have days to map out, grocery lists to compile, weather reports to check, and most importantly, kilometers to walk. But I will save the sentimentality for now, and just say it has been an amazing adventure, and it is hard to believe we are almost finished!