Wednesday 29.03.2023

• Te Araroa kilometres done: 2646.5km
• Official kms: 16km
• Garmin kms: 16.33km
• Total time: 6:30
• Calories burned: 2955
• Body battery: 8/10
• Accommodation: Highland creek hut
• Tent nights tally: 18
• Zero days had so far: 27

https://givealittle.co.nz/fundraiser/walking-te-araroa-3000km-for-the-key-to-life

Track me live here:

https://aus-share.explore.garmin.com/curtiss

I thought I would make the most of my comfy bed this morning & didn’t roll out until 7am (yep that’s what I consider a sleep in!) after getting organised I was back on the trail just before 9am.

The initial 3km was gravel road after walking through the campground. From here it’s the beginning of the Motatapu track which takes you all the way through to Macetown just before Arrowtown.

The start of the Motatapu is quite nice & a well marked track going through farmland. This is for at least 3km before exiting through a gate in the fence line to the reserve.

The track here is mostly really good apart from a few slips & detours that have to be navigated. It didn’t seem long before I started climbing a little steeper. It’s a 500 metre climb up to the Fern burn hut where I planned to have lunch.

After coming out of the valley & into the open the track sidled around the hills & before long the hut was in sight.

I stopped for lunch inside the hut but as it was fairly cold I was off again within 20 minutes. This is where the steepest climbing began. In the first 1.5km I had climbed over 300 metres of elevation. Then it buttoned off a bit until reaching the saddle.

Beautiful views back down to lake Wanaka from here. I didn’t stop long, again because it was cold. When I started the descent I was amazed at how steep it was, following a ridge line down with drop offs either side! At one point I slipped and slid on my bum for a few meters.

Definitely a ridge not for the faint hearted. It dropped nearly 400 metres in the first kilometre! After getting to the bottom, there was one last climb of 100 metres before sidling around to Highland creek hut.

There were already 3 in the hut. 2 of the girls I had met before on the Nelson lakes section. About 6pm another 6 hikers turned up. Full hut tonight.