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!