Start of the Trip - CollingwoodKaramea - Heaphy TrackRolling River, WangapekaMurchison, New ZealandLewis passArthurs PassRakaia RiverLake Clearwater, New ZealandLake Ohau, New ZealandWanaka, New ZealandArrowtown, New ZealandTe Anau, New ZealandTuatapere, New ZealandTe Waewae Bay
 | walk4kiwis |  | A long walk to Save the Kiwis |  | Tuatapere, New Zealand |
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Mar 20 2010, 09:07 PM
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Tuatapere, New Zealand
Anyways, left wonderful old Te Anau and headed back to where we finished off yesterday with 13k’s of main highway to cover, joy of joys.
For your information there is 1 Maui camper every 2 minutes going to or from Te Anau and these are interspaced with tour buses full of sleeping tourists. I wonder how much of NZ they actually see.
Spent the night in Mossburn, which sells itself as the “Deer Capital of NZ”.
Interesting going into the local store and instead of racks of women’s magazines, it was Rod & Rifle, More Pork, Game Hunting in NZ etc.etc. Real chap’s country, one feels.
19/03/10
Greatest distance covered in one day!! 42k’s!! Admittedly, all flat and on the seal, but, boy, still a bloody long way! Escaped the clutches of Mossburn about 8am this morning and stopped walking about 5.30pm. Mind you, this included a stop every 5 k’s for drinks, food and moral support. Have reached a stage when my morals definitely need supporting! Most of the day was wonderfully sunny but cold as a mother in law’s heart! I read some time ago a diary from some bloke who had done the Te Araroa walk and followed this particular route. He reckoned that this was the most boring part of the whole journey. I certainly haven’t found that! What a pleasure to walk through such wonderful green and fertile country again after some of the near desert I have been through.
This is real dairy farm country, not that dry barren crappy parched country around Omarama. Heard today that the plans to put intensive dairy farming up there have been put on hold. Thank goodness for that.
Passed close by White Hill Wind Farm, the only wind farm in the SI., 29 turbines producing enough power for 30,000 houses. Personally I don’t have a problem with wind power, but there again, they aren’t in my backyard!
Tucked away at present at the centre of the universe. A great place called Nightcaps! The name speaks for itself! If you haven’t been here, I really recommend that you keep it that way!
But this time it really is only 61 k’s to go.
20/03/10
36 more k’s behind us and just 25 left for the final push tomorrow! Bit harder today as most of it was into the teeth of a pretty strong westerly wind. Also a few hills thrown in just to remind me what they are like. Crossed the 46th parallel at one stage and walked under the huge pylons carrying the power from the Manapouri power station to the Tiwai Aluminum Smelter at Bluff. Straight as a die as they faded into the distance.
Walked through a few almost ghost towns en route. All these towns were built around coal mines and as these mines closed, so did the towns. I suppose at some time in the not too distant past these were thriving communities.
Dragged out the MP3 player again and walked the distance listening to Douglas Adams’ ‘Life, The Universe and Everything’. It is one very funny book! I don’t know what he was on when he wrote it, but I sure wish I could get some! So now camped in Tuatapere, 10ks from Te Waewae Bay and the end of one helluva stroll. Started raining a wee while ago and I guess it would be fitting for the last day as I started in the rain 72 days ago. Will tell you all about it in a day or so.
Don’t know what I am going to do on Monday!
Take care, and keep putting one foot in front of the other.
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