Sunday February 25, 2024Distance/ Total: 10.2 km / 6.3 mi Today was a Nero (near zero) day as we made arrangements to get shuttled around the Rangitata River, the second of the two braided rivers we had to detour around. I had sent an email last night to Jenny at Peel Forest Farmstay to see if they could provide a […]

Saturday February 24, 2024Distance/ Total: 37.5 km / 23.3 mi I woke about 6:30am and started moving my gear outside the hut to pack up. Shaun was already up and packed and started down the trail early. I packed up and was a few minutes behind him. The trail left the hut and followed the valley on a 4WD road. […]

Friday February 23, 2024Distance/ Total: 32.0 km / 19.9 mi Shaun and I were up at 5:00 am this morning in order to pack up our gear and meet the bus at 6:00am. The bus ride was about an hour and we were on the trail at 7:10 am. The first part of the trail followed a fence line through […]

Thursday February 22, 2024Distance/ Total: 0 km / 0 mi The Te Araroa Trail has 2 interruptions caused by braided rivers. A braided river is a very wide river created by loose shale that has washed down from the mountains to form it’s base. The river then “finds” it’s way through the rocks in multiple channels and is constantly being […]

Wednesday February 21, 2024Distance/ Total: 29.1 km / 18.1 mi Another great night of sleep in the tent. It was a cold night last night and I had condensation on my tent I had to wipe off this morning. Some of the other hikers complained of frozen tents, but mine was fine. The trail today is about 25km of roadwalk […]

Tuesday February 20, 2024Distance/ Total: 19.1 km / 11.9 mi I slept great in my tent last night, finally getting off the flat mattresses in the huts. I got up and packed up fairly early, but spent the morning visiting with the other hikers and not getting started until about 8:30. The trail was mostly flat following the Harper River […]

Monday February 19, 2024Distance/ Total: 25.2 km / 15.7 mi Shaun, Isabell, Jess & I headed to the cafe’ this morning at 8:30. I was wanting some more of their delicious pancakes. We ate and finally headed out to the trail about 10:00am. Arthur’s Pass was 5km from where we got off trail and we planned to hitch back to […]

Sunday February 18, 2024Distance/ Total: 9.7 km / 6 mi The four of us got up early and started up the trail about 6:40am. We had left the remainder of our gear in the Alpine Club Lodge in Arthur’s Pass and checkout is at 10:00 am. The trail climbed a short distance up to Goat Pass and then traveled across […]

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 […]