Saturday February 17, 2024Distance/ Total: 13.9 km / 8.6 mi The Arthur’s Pass cafe doesn’t open until 8:30am so there was no reason to get up early this morning. Erik, Isabel, Jess and I had made plans to get a pancake breakfast there before doing a slack pack section from the Morrison Bridge to Hwy 73 – 23.6km. We ate […]

Friday February 16, 2024Distance/ Total: 13.5 km / 8.4 mi Isabell, Jess, Erik, & I made plans last night to hike out to the Morrison footbridge together today. It is 13.5 km by trail and follows the Taramakau River and the Otira Rivers. With the rain yesterday we were concerned that the rivers would be higher than normal and could […]

Wednesday February 14, 2024Distance/ Total: 16.2 km / 10.2 mi It was a cold morning and I just didn’t want to get out of the sleeping bag. I kept covering back up and falling back asleep. Before I knew it it was almost 7:00 am. I forced my self up and started getting ready. The trail continued following the Hurunui […]

Tuesday February 13, 2024Distance/ Total: 26.2 km / 16.3 mi It was a cold morning this morning and I didn’t want to get out of my sleeping bag. I finally forced myself to get up and noticed that the sandflies were gone. It must be too cold for them. However, when I crawled out of the tent it didn’t take […]

Monday February 12, 2024Distance/ Total: 24.2 km / 15.0 mi Pippi, a hiker from the UK, had set up a shuttle for us this morning at 8:00am. I was up at 6:00am and packed up before 7:00. I went down to the kitchen and made some coffee and ate some cereal and Tim Tams while waiting for our ride. We […]

Sunday February 11, 2024Distance/ Total: 0.0 km / 0.0 mi Zero day in Hanmer Springs. I slept in until after 7:00am this morning and was pretty slow getting around. I thought about going out for breakfast but it was raining when I got up and I didn’t want to walk in the rain. I settled on a breakfast bar, some […]

Saturday February 10, 2024Distance/ Total: 18.9 km / 11.7 mi I woke up before daylight and started getting ready. I noticed that the sandflies had left and I was looking forward to a bite-free morning. It started getting daylight as I packed up my gear and by the time I was ready to climb out of the tent they had […]

Friday February 9, 2024Distance/ Total: 22.7 km / 14.1 mi The hut was too warm and the mattress too flat to be comfortable last night. I tossed and turned trying to get comfortable but never could get things just right. The hut started coming alive about 6:15am and I got up and moved my gear to the common area to […]

Thursday February 8, 2024Distance/ Total: 26.0 km / 16.2 mi Despite my murderous rampage on the sandflies that got in my tent last night, the outside of my tent was swarming with sandflies this morning. I ate breakfast, packed up most of my gear, and applied insect repellent before venturing out. They still swarmed me while I took down my […]