Te Araroa Trail – Day 122
Friday March 8, 2024
Distance/ Total: 24.7 km / 15.3 mi
Shaun and I got around fairly early this morning, but did take time to eat some breakfast at the hostel before heading back to the trail. We were on the trail by about 7:45am and began our walk out of town. There is a Farm Show going on this weekend in Wānaka and the trail walked by the event grounds. Apparently a Farm Show in New Zealand is like a State Fair in the USA. There were a lot of vendors that didn’t have anything to do with agriculture and even fair rides.
As we left town we walked by That Wānaka Tree which is a popularly photographed attraction. We stopped and got our photos of it as well.
The trail out of town was on a gravel bike path and followed the shoreline of Lake Wānaka. The trail rose up on some hills and provided great views of the lake and surrounding mountains. It was 18km to the start of the Motatapu Track and we stopped at the trailhead and ate lunch before continuing on.
Back on the trail it passed through some farmlands and then began a slow ascent up a valley. The trail walked alongside Fern Burn Steam for awhile before rising up onto the side hill. The trail on the side hill was very steep and had lots of ups and downs on a very rocky and rooted trail.
We arrived at Fern Burn Hut about 4:30 and grabbed a couple of bunks for the night. We were the first two hikers in and throughout the day another 4-5 arrived. We ate dinner, got our gear ready for tomorrow and crawled into bed about 8:00pm. I spent some time writing a blog and then watched another episode of “Who is Erin Carter” on Netflix before going to sleep.
