Start – Arthurs Pass
Finish – Arthurs Pass
Daily Distance – 0 km
TA Distance – 2203 km
Day 108
It rained. I mean really rained. The kind of rain that starts you wondering how hard building an ark could
be and whether it would be possible to knock one up using a Swiss army knife?
I have mainly been distracted researching new outdoor gear to buy before my next trip. Sorry animals…
I also researched a truly exceptional date scone from the cafe. Rain days have a lot to answer for!
Day 109
Avalanche peak is one of the finest walks that I have yet experienced in NZ. A rocky summit at an
impressively lofty 1833m, requiring just the right amount of scrambling and offering wonderful views of
the southern Alps. In short, everything I could ask from a walk short of a pub at the summit and a dog.
And to think we only chose to do it because it had a charmingly imposing name!
Liberated from the burden of carrying our lives on our backs, Ben, Natalie and I set off on today’s
odyssey carrying nothing but snacks, some warm clothes and a little water. To be able to walk without an
ape like hunch, to spring up an incline with whippet like alacrity (sadly including panting and slobbering
in my case, damn hills!), oh the joy! The estimated ascent time is 4 hours, but with our newfound
lightness we were admiring the views (and darned chilly wind) on the summit a mere 2.5 hours after
setting off. Maybe the last 2000km has helped my fitness after all. The large pre-walk coffee and slice of
carrot cake may also have helped mind ?
The rest of the day has been spent researching how to get around 2 impassable rivers that are coming up
in the next few weeks. The TA route takes you to the Rakaia and Rangitata rivers and then kindly leaves
you to make the 70-100km detour round to the other side. The options are almost all either expensive,
woolly, or involve potential drowning…yay! No firm decisions yet, but we did manage to rule out a lot of
ideas, so with a sufficient dose of optimism that’s progress.
Tomorrow will see me leaving town after what feels like forever. 4 days to Lake Coleridge and the
Rakaia river.
My photos really don’t do the views from avalanche peak justice…
