tramping new zealand

Still Lake Pukaki?

That doesn’t sound like a whole day’s walking. Particularly when near the conclusion of today’s exercise, I looked back and could pick out the small forest area where I had spent the previous night.

In my defence, there was a fair level of wiggly-woggliness, in and out of bays and as the day progressed, it was more of a smash into the wind that was scooting down the lake. It’s gotta be around 30 km.

I left before most of the 30 or so campervans had roused themselves, not missing out on the full moon setting over the lake or a decent cooked brekkie, love that porridge and coffee. After that, it was somewhat of a trudge; the track, although close to Highway 8, is located along a separate bike path, the Alps to Sea Cycleway, which starts near Mount Cook and heads, well, to the Pacific somewhere.

Only met the two TA walkers today. We swapped info; they had been walking by themselves for a while, a few days behind that chunk I met a few days ago.

The wind was really up when, late in the day, I reached the signpost saying Tekapo 26 km, which marked the start of a 500 m climb that would be on the itinerary for tomorrow. I found a clump of macrocarpa trees and put up the tent, almost out of sight. I’m hoping the wind dissipates soon with the sun going down. Apparently, there are two big lows dragging cold air up from near Antarctica.

On Day 4 of these big, chilly winds, I’m getting over it all.