Day 56-60: Queenstown to Longwood Forest Track. 2710km-2912km - 🥾Te Araroa Trail - The South Island 🇳🇿

Day 56/64 🥾Te Araroa Trail - The South Island 🇳🇿

📍Supported by ZOLEO @zoleolifeeurope #ChallengeWithZoleo

ℹ️Stats: Sunday 25th February

Weather: hot & sunny ☀️

From: Queenstown - Greenstone Car Park

Start time: 7.45am / 9.50am

To: Boundary Hut

End time: 8pm

Accommodation: Hut - top bunk (3 other people) 1 person is snoring already!

Terrain: nice forest tracks, swampy, muddy, wet, rocky, grassy, muddy again!

🥾Km: 21.3

🦶Steps: 27,408

🚗 80km (not part of the official TA route)

Total Km: 2746/3028 = 91% ✅

💰Costs: $0 🥳 I love not spending money.

Subjective feeling out of 10 on:

Enjoyment: 7/10

Fatigue: 3/10

Ease of terrain: 6/10

⭐️Highlights: catching up with Julie @juliagsauthorspeaker & Mike. Who very kindly gave me a lift around the 80km detour.

🚗We also picked up @erikahikes who was hitching from Glenorchy. They also joined us for the 1st hr on trail. Which was awesome 🙌👍

🏔️Challenges: the mud, very tiring to walk in, especially when you get sucked into it. Plus you really had to concentrate on foot placement. In one section I ended up going down to my knees!

💭Thoughts: I’ve got to do a lot of big days!! I’ve got 282km to walk in 7 days. I need to hit a minimum of 40k per day! In order to catch my flight on the 4th.

🥾I’d really like to do a 50km day tomorrow - but I’ll have to see how I get on. There is about 12k of gravel road, which means I can walk quicker on those sections.

⏰The alarm is set for 6am - so fingers crossed I’ll be out and walking early!

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Day 57/64 🥾Te Araroa Trail - The South Island 🇳🇿

📍Supported by ZOLEO @zoleolifeeurope #ChallengeWithZoleo

ℹ️Stats: Monday 26th February

Weather: dry & cloudy ☁️

From: Boundary Hut

Start time: 8am

To: Lower Princhester Hut

End time: 6.20pm

Accommodation: hut 6 bed - botttom bunk. 1 other person TA Nobo

Terrain: forest tracks, gravel road, over & under trees, 4WD road

Walked with - @Karlijn_Snoeijs (🇳🇱) / pocket rocket

🥾Km: 27.6

🦶Steps: 35398

🚗Hitched (Amy & partner from the states) from 2777 - to a junction level with 2790. (13km) walked 3k on the road and then

🚗 Hitched from 2793 - 2806 (13km)

Total Km: 2812/3028 = 93% ✅

💰Costs: $0

Subjective feeling out of 10 on:

Enjoyment: 7/10

Fatigue: 3/10

Ease of terrain: 5/10

⭐️Highlights: reaching the hut in good time! Having a good feed and an early night. Ready for a big day tomorrow. It was nice chatting with Karlijn as it made the time fly by as we walked and talked.

🏔️Challenges: in the forest getting past some of the down trees was a challenge. At one point it seemed like every 20 metres there was another tree/trees than you needed to go around, go over, go under. It was hard work. I also took a tumble. But landed on soft moss!

💭Thoughts: I’ve got a plan for tomorrow to get to lower Wairaki hut. But I can’t look further than that at the moment. It’s too much to take in.

I need to take it 1 day at a time and do as much as I can. Estimated time to get there is 11hrs.. it’s going to be an early start. Maybe…. - I’m not great at getting up early!!

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Day 58/64 🥾Te Araroa Trail - The South Island 🇳🇿

📍Supported by ZOLEO @zoleolifeeurope #ChallengeWithZoleo

Tākitimu Track

ℹ️Stats: Tuesday 27th February

Weather: cloudy ☁️

From: Lower Princhester Hut

Start time: 8.05am

To: Lower Wairaki Hut

End time: 8.20pm

Accommodation: bottom bunk in the hut - I had the hut to myself

Terrain: grassy tussocks, mud, forest, mud, mud, mud, mud, mud.

🥾Km: 15.7 (I know it was more like 30k / my watch is done after this trip)

🦶Steps: 20,180

Total Km: 2842/3028 = 94% ✅

💰Costs: $0

Subjective feeling out of 10 on:

Enjoyment: 2/10 - not enjoyable today.

Fatigue: 3/10

Ease of terrain: 6/10

⭐️Highlights: not sure there was any! Struggling to think of anything good.

🏔️Challenges: the tussocks and trying to navigate through. The mud, in between the tussocks and in the forest.

💭Thoughts: what a day. Glad to get it over and done with. It was nice to have the hut to myself. That was a win!

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Day 59/64 🥾Te Araroa Trail - The South Island 🇳🇿

📍Supported by ZOLEO @zoleolifeeurope #ChallengeWithZoleo

Tākitimu Track

ℹ️Stats: Wednesday 28th February

Weather: cloudy with light rain 🌧️

From: Lower Wairaki Hut

Start time: 8.15am

To: Birchwood Road

End time: 7.40pm

Accommodation: wild camped ⛺️

Terrain: forest, 4WD tracks, little bit of gravel road

🥾Km: 28.4

🦶Steps: 36,356

Total Km: 2881/3028 = 95% ✅

💰Costs: $0

Subjective feeling out of 10 on:

Enjoyment: 4/10

Fatigue: 3/10

Ease of terrain: 5/10

⭐️Highlights: glad to walk from the hut to the Telford campsite in 3hr 45 and take 7hrs 15 mins to do the next section. Solid day.

🏔️Challenges: another long day. Cloudy in the morning, so couldn’t see anything on the ridge walk and I needed to be careful with my navigation.

🧠I had a mental wobble at the start of the day not knowing if I was going to be able to get the kms done.

💭Thoughts: so ready to be done with the TA. Can’t wait to finish and get home. 🏡

I know I need to do 40km each day. So it’s just a case of getting it done. I also starting to think and plan what I need to do when I get home. Trying to stay in the present, but it’s hard to do.

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Day 60/64 🥾Te Araroa Trail - The South Island 🇳🇿

📍Supported by ZOLEO @zoleolifeeurope #ChallengeWithZoleo

Birchwood to Merrivale- Woodlaw Track

ℹ️Stats: Thursday 29th February

Weather: Sunny ☀️

From: Birchwood Road

Start time: 8.25am

To: Longwood Forest Track

End time: 6.30pm

Accommodation: wild camped 2912km approx

Terrain: farm land, forest tracks, gravel road, road, gravel road, forest tracks.

🥾Km: 30

🦶Steps: 38,589

Total Km: 2912/3028 = 96% ✅

💰Costs: $0

Subjective feeling out of 10 on:

Enjoyment: 6/10

Fatigue: 4/10

Ease of terrain: 4/10 - easy ish day today.

⭐️Highlights: I’ve got a plan for the final 3 days and feel confident. I just need to make sure I leave the forest tomorrow! Not sure what it’s going to be like. But I need to get to the other side!

🏔️Challenges: little hard getting the tent pegs into the ground. The gravel/road walking has slammed my feet. They are super sore.

I don’t know why I only took 5 pictures today! 🤷‍♀️

💭Thoughts: you can tell summer is coming to an end. It’s starting to get colder in the mornings and the evenings.

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