🗓️Total Days: 64
🗓️Days on Trail: 53
🥾Walking days: 52
🚴♀️Bike day: 1
🛌Rest Days: 8
Travel days: 3 (Day 1, 42, & Day 64)
🏁Start date: 1st January 2024 from Wellington, North Island
🔚End date: 4th March 2024 at Auckland. (I finished the trail on the 3rd of March - I travelled back to Auckland on the 4th March)
South Island: 1,312km / 820 miles
Methods of travel: Walk, Ferry, Water Taxi, Car, Bike, Van, Plane.
🥾On Trail : 53 days / 1036km / 647 miles
Average daily: 19.5km / 12 miles
⏰Earliest start time: 6.25am - day 33 - needed to leave early to get past the rain, before the rivers became impassable. This was before catching a shuttle to Methven.
⏰Latest start time: 12.50pm - day 45 - I needed to wait for my pole to fixed in Wanaka
⏰Earliest end time: 12.05pm - day 40 - all downhill waking and a 12km hitch along the road
⏰Latest end time: 9.30pm - day 61 - I finished Longwood Forest and then did the 5k road walk to the coast
🦶Longest time on feet: 13hrs 30 - day 61 - it was a long tough day!!! Glad there was some trail magic at the last hut - a can of coke helped keep me going for the final few hours.
Other transportation: Costs: $692 / £325
Boat rides: 2. Ferry ⛴️ from Wellington to Picton ($99). Water taxi from Picton to the start of the Queen Charlotte Track ($85).
🚴♀️Bike: 54km / 34 miles Lake Tekapo to Twizel $93
Bus 3x Intercity 🚎 Twizel to Wanaka, Queenstown to Twizel, Wanaka to Queenstown. ($177)
🚐3x Methven Shuttle - distance shuttled 225km. $220 / £110
Bus - Auckland Airport to CBD $18
🚗Hitching: 11 - 6 to and from the trail.
5 hitches to avoid road walking. Approx 82km of road.
🚙Longest Shuttle: 80km detour - not an official part of the trail. (🙏 @juliagsauthorspeaker)
Accommodation: 💷Total Accommodation Costs: £629 / $1,338
🛌Nights with a roof over my head: 49 / 77%
⛺️Night in my tent: 15 / 23%
🛏️DOC Huts: 25 nights - DOC hut pass $120 - which works out to $4.80 per night
🛏️Hostel/cabin: 23
🏕️Free Camping: 11 nights
⛺️Paid Camping: 4
Most expensive accommodation: $75 (on Queen Charlotte track - it had a biscuit on the pillow which I couldn’t eat as Im GF)
⛺️Cheapest cost camping $10
🍽️Total Food Costs: £994 / $2,114
Average daily food cost £19 / $40
🏘️Most expensive Food Shop: £115 / $230 - St. Arnaud - small town, everything was more expensive. Many people send food boxes here
Miscellaneous Costs: Total: $682 / £320 - sunscreen, eSIM, bug spray, painkillers, chapstick, water purification tablets, new socks & packliner from MacPac. (Which included bungy jump $410)
Total Costs*: £2,236 / $4,757
💷 💵Average costs per day: £42 / $90
*(This doesn’t include my international flight costs, travel insurance, and travel/accommodation before getting to back to Wellington & Auckland/UK- I’ll include these costs in my total stats post as it’s too hard to separate it out for each island)
Subjective feeling out of 10 on:
😀Total Enjoyment: 381/530 = 72% I enjoyed the South Island much much more than the North
😫Total Fatigue average: 224/530 = 42% - was feeling a lot more tired and run down. Even though I had more rest days.
⛰️Total Ease of terrain: 291/530 = 55% that’s pretty accurate. The trails were much better maintained. Just 1 massively muddy section - Longwood Forest and 1 challenging river walk. Generally the river crossings were fine for me apart from 1 super challenging day - due to the cold and rain Felt like I was going hyperthermia.This was before Methven.
Challenges: Tent pole breaking day 37. Having to get it fixed. Being delayed by 3 days. Which cost me money in terms of staying in Wanaka for 3 nights and paying for bus travel there and getting back from Queenstown to do the section I missed. Plus now I have a ripped tent and a tent I don’t like or trust to protect me from the elements.
The last 3 days were just… as somebody said in the comments, “it’s as if the trail was fighting back”. Three big days, day one mud, day two - sand and day three - concrete all the hardest elements and I was doing long days my feet were really felling it.
👟Plus by the last day, my trainers had gone, they had a hole and pebbles were getting in. I managed to fix with a compeed. They were properly battered.
According to my scale for enjoyment I had 3 days below 5 for enjoyment.
Th logistics were still challenging in terms of sorting out the shuttles and getting around the detours. Plus keeping an eye on the weather for many of the river crossings and mountain passes.
✨Highlights: Richmond Alpine Track, Waiau pass, Deception Track.
ℹ️Random…Other Costs/Stats/Info
Queen Charlotte Track Pass: $30
DOC 6 month Hut pass $120
No of no spend days: 29
🧺Proper machine wash Laundry: 1x (otherwise hand wash) it was included at Boyle Educational centre.
🎀Washed hair: 3x (St Arnaud, Wanaka, Auckland)
Cocktails drinks in Queenstown: 5 🍹🍹🍹🍹🍹
Gear destroyed/broken: 2x pairs @inov_8 socks, 1 pair @macpac socks - got a hole on the 2nd day of use - had to bin after 5 days. (new after Queenstown), 1 sawyer water filter - lost the inner white ring. 1 sawyer filter water bag - torn and fixed with duct tape. 1x Inov8 trainers, 1x pink inov8 waterproof jacket / had been used since 2021, 1x @msr_gear tent - pole broke, outer tent torn, base has a hole (new for this trip - been used for 42 nights before it got damaged), 1x large sea to summit dry sack - multiple tears (new for this trip) - too fine. Could not withstand the daily wear and tear. 1x @garmin watch - the watch strap broke and the distances started being wrong. (Old watch - had since 2016 - the TA finished it off). 1x go pro holder - cracked, 1x FIZAN pole - broke in the mud. Gutted I loved these walking poles. 1x Inov8 shorts - small holes in the sides of them.
No of items lost: 1/2 of one pole in the mud.
📦Resupply boxes sent: 0
Gifted gear: @Ospreypacks backpack EJA 48L , all Inov8 gear: 2x socks, trainers, black short shorts, pink hoody, pink waterproof jacket, gloves.
👟Trainers: Inov8 ROCFLY G 350 GTX WOMEN'S trainers - £160. World’s first waterproof hiking shoe with Graphene foam.
📡📲Communication Device: ZOLEO - connects with your phone to provide seamless global messaging that follows you in and out of mobile network coverage
Apps used on the trail: Te Ararora App, Te Ararora Notes & maps App, Google Maps, Booking.com, Airalo (e-sim card), Zoleo App
*I have done a separate post with the stats from the North Island, and I will also be doing a post with the TOTAL stats from both islands
🎤I will also be recording a Tough Girl Podcast solo episode where I will share in more detail my experience from the hike. This will be live 12th March 2024. 🎧
#toughgirl #toughgirlchallenges #toughgirlpodcast #lovetowalk #hikingadventures #Zoleo #adventurewithzoleo #newzealand #teararoatrail #southisland #zoleolife #exploreoitdoors #getactive #stayconnected #stats