Living off the Land and our Biggest River Crossing

As we head north we are tramping towards the more remote parts of the south island. For the next month, we will be sending food via maildrops to ourselves for resupply in the more logistically challenging sections.

Our first night out of Tekapo, our stove, the MSP Whisper Lite Inter., malfunctioned. Fortunately, we knew that most of the huts in this section are older and will definately have wood burning stoves or a fireplace to cook on. And if we have to camp, we can simply cook over an open fire. Not anything to really worry about but it is more of a major inconvinience since we sometimes cook 3 times a day and love an afternoon coffee break.

Our 3rd day out, after not seeing a soul the whole time, things got really interesting. First we met a group of 8 men all over 70, doing their yearly tramp. We were excited to see them and chatted for a while (we found out later that two had to be aided by helicopter). A few hours later, we met Julian, a tramper also doing the Te Araroa but he was going south. He is English and lives in Germany. He is a musician and decided to take a year off to travel. This is his first long hike. After about an hour trading info. he decided to camp with us so we could go over maps more thoroughly.

About an hour later, a hunter and his female companion walked by our camp site. Parker had heard the shot and asked if he "got it". He said yes, it was a thar (a goat that is popular to hunt, originally from the Himalayas). As he was leaving, he told Parker that he left the thar leg hanging on a tree off the track and that we could have it if we wanted it. The hunter was certain that he would get a better shot at another thar or deer.

None of us had ever been given a leg of anything before while tramping but we gave it a go! The boys found the leg and skinned it.They cut steaks to roast over the fire. Julian made us a huge pot of rice, lentils, dried eggplant and dried green beans with garlic and hot curry. While Julian and I were cooking, Parker caught three rainbow trouts! We feasted, went over maps and talked well into the night about our crazy day and our journey through NZ.

We parted ways with Julian in the morning. The boys had split the remainder of the thar leg the night before. We had already planned on going to Mesopotamia Station(Ranch). They were holding a resupply package for us and we reserved a cottage for the night. The cottage had three bedrooms and a fully stocked kitchen. The cottages are popular with hunters and fisherman. We made stew, steaks, burgers and Parker made some beef jerky. We ate the whole leg in two days. We were a couple of hungry trampers! We still talk about that thar leg that was gifted to us by the Kiwi hunters.

Rangitata River Crossing

The next day was a big day for us since we were crossing New Zealand's second biggest River, the Rangitata. It is a braided river so it required over 20 crossings, just to get from one side to the other. We were told that it was pretty low and that it was doable. We just had take our time and choose our route carefully. Most of the channels were narrow and shallow but we had two wider and deeper sections. The last one was the longer one and the water was moving much faster. Parker is always up stream so he can block the flow for me. Halfway through our crossing, I was almost swept away. Parker had a death grip on me and I righted back up. We took a few second to recover and compose ourselves but had to keep going. The water was freezing cold and it hit me below my chest. It was extremely difficult to lift our legs due to the force of the water and our legs were tiring. I almost had a nervous breakdown in the middle of the crossing but made it through. I was shaken the rest of the day.

This section was through the incredible Mesopotamia Station Valley and the Rangitata River Valley. It offered our favorite views so far, our first thar leg, a shaky river crossing and overall a very eventful nine days.

Shania Twain's Backyard to Lake Tekapo

Our next stretch after Queenstown was Arrowtown to Wanaka. In 2004, Shania Twain purchased around 20,000 acres in the area (SOHO Property). A stepulation for the purchase agreement was that she had to a build a public track through the property. This portion of land has not been available to the public for about 100 years and a track through it would finally connect the two towns. She purchased the land and gifted a very demanding 34km track and 3 awesome huts on her property.

The track is called the Motatapu and it opened a little over a year ago, just in time for us! It is a 3-4 day tramp through exposed alpine. It was either straight up, straight down or steep tricky sidling (edging the side of a mountain). The route is poled every 50-100 yards but there is no trail so you have to make your way. There was a tricky section where the scree had eroded and we had to kick out our own path to get around the cliff.

Since it is still new and it is known to be tough, we had the whole 4 days of track and huts to ourselves. We started off early every morninge got so we could get to the huts where we were able to relax, read and enjoyed the stunning scenery. We were hoping that Shania was out and about and invite us over for a spot of tea. No such luck. The only song we could remember was "Man, I feel like a woman!". Actually, that was the only line we remembered. But it was appropriate for the terrain and it was enough to entertain us for a few days!

Wanaka to Tekapo
Wanaka is a great little town. The lake is just as beautiful as Queenstown with still all the activities available but much quiter. We would highly recommend this quaint town. We would have liked to stay longer than two days. But we knew we had a stretch with a lot of creek crossings, a major river crossing and an unmarked route. We wanted to take advantage of the good weather with no rain to feed the rivers so we headed out.



So the plan was Wanaka to Twizel with a quick resupply and we thought we would get into Tekapo in 5 days. This was our best guess. Really, we had no idea. Even the DOC did not know how long this might take so we took extra food as we always do, just in case. Also, in Queenstown, Parker purchased a lightweight fly fishing rod instead of throwing himself off of a bridge. So for the next stretch we looked for great fishing spots to camp next to. Well, 5 days turned into 7 days with the last 3 days pushing huge kms. We have been enjoying 3 nights out and rolling into town our 4th day. So this was our longest stretch yet but what an amazing stretch! In 7 days we saw such much variation in landscape and 4 lakes: Lake Wanaka, Hawea, Ohau, Pukaki and Tekapo.

It is always tough going the first day out with so much food in our packs. It was hot, hot, hot. We found an awesome fishing hole for Parker and great pine camp spot. He hooked into a salmon his first cast but lost it! It was fun though and very promising for his first time out. The next night Parker caught 3 rainbow trout and I caught one! We released them all because we have not worked out a way to cook fish with our tiny pots.

The next three days involved an amazing 41 creek crossings on Timaru Creek. Yes, that's 41! Most were knee high and many we could hop across. There was a tight spot where we had to do a little scaling on a cliff to avoid swimming across. In all cases, there was no avoiding wet boots!

Then we came across our first major river crossing, the Ahuriri River. River crossing make me extremely nervous. You have to unclasp your pack so it doesn't take you down into the water if you fall. But if you loose your pack you loose everything, so it's a catch-22. Fortunately, the weather held up and the crossing was only waist deep. With the deeper creek crossing and especially the rivers, Parker and I agree on a safe spot and link arms as we cross the river together. So far so good!

After the Ahuriri River was our unmarked route on this stretch. Parker has done a tremendous job with our maps and navigating. We followed a route he mapped out a few months ago and it worked out perfectly. Unmarked routes always make me so nervous. You make your best guess but you really don't know until you are on top of the mountain and look at the other side to see if you made a good choice. Unmarked routes are, of course, Parker's favorite. He throughly enjoys navigating, exploring, bush-bashing, etc. Unmarked routes always take a long time to get through. This was when we started realizing we were going to be out longer than expected.

When we finally reached Twizel, we called the Wanaka DOC to let them know we made it but that we were going to take 2 extra days. They remembered us and were excited to here about our tramp. Since we had originally decide to not stop in Twizel, we decide to push on to Tekapo so we could enjoy a nice 3 day break.

What a week! 5 unbelieveable lakes, 41 creek crossings and a river crossing. We only stayed at one hut because we wanted to camp out in the stars on the lakes. It's so amazing to have a river or glacier lake at the end of the day. The glacier lakes here have the most mind blowing hues of blue we have ever seen. I take pictures all day but it just cannot be captured with a camera. What a week!