Once Olivia had decided that her foot was too bad to do the walk it left me and Katie to bag the track. We packed up our dehydrated food and some essential clothes in our backpacks and were pleasantly surprised at how light they were in comparison to what we carried in Torres for our 4 day walk. We decided that we were going to lend Adolf the Van to Olivia to use whilst we walked the track so we were lucky enough to get a lift to the start. This meant that we were ahead of the other walkers who were still waiting for the buses.
We seemed to be rather lucky with the weather as we had been tolld to expect rain at all times on these walksThe first days walking was to take us along the shore of Lake Te Anau to Brod Bay where we would head inland to the base of our first climb. We were then to scale up the side of Mt Luxmore to the Luxmore Hut for our first nights accomodation. This was supposed to take 6hours in total so we set off at an easy pace so as to not wear ourselves out.
We reached Brod Bay in half the time that was allowed and were clear of the treeline of Mt Luxmore by lunch. We had been told that it was only 45 minutes from here to the Hut so either we had been walking at an incredible pace or the times allowed were meant for fat Americans! We had a nice long lunch of chicken in a can spread on crackers with tomatoes and went to find our space in the bunkhouse.
Our accommodation was very clean and new and even had a separate room where you could wash! The hut slept about 50 people in the communal bunkroom and even while we were dehydrating our dehydrated Babootje (a traditional African food that we figured as we didn't actually know what it was supposed to taste like we wouldn't be disappointed if the dehydrated version wasn't up to scratch) I had spotted a few people who would keep us awake as they were simply too loud for shared accommodation.
After our Babootje which was quite nice if I do say so (must compare it to the real thing one day) we had a brief talk about the stoat problems in the area and rehabilitation of the Kiwi population and then we turned it in for an early night as we had the long Alpine section of the walk to look forward to the next day.
Sure enough the predicted loud Americans did keep me awake but I just put in my earplugs and tried to ignore them, besides I made twice as much noise as them in the morning. Some (my wife) might say that I was antagonistic!
The weather was absolutely spot on again. There certainly was no sign of the extreme weather that we were told to expect so after a huge bowl of porridge we packed up our gear and hit the trail. Going by the previous days vastly over exaggerated travel times we were in no hurry and decided to make the most of our surroundings. As we passed below the summit of Mt Luxmore we took the time to dump off our packs on the trail and trek to the top for some amazing views. We still couldn't believe our luck with the weather and we were even beginning to discuss the possibility that the curse of the Whites may have been lifted. We stopped for lunch at one of the storm shelters and we were soon joined by a couple of Kea. These mountain parrots have learnt that there is a steady stream of walkers arriving everyday we all eat rather crumbly biscuits and fruit that they seem to go mad for. Whilst some of us ate the others fended of the predators with walking poles or shoes and we then repaid the favour until the Kea got the message that they weren't stealing any rations today.
We were about on schedule for the walk today and after another hour or so of walking we would be at the start of the steep downhill section. To get to the nights hut we would have to walk almost back down to sea level utilising 91 switchbacks. By the time we got down to the hut our shins and toes were in agony from being constantly dragged downhill by gravity and a heavy pack. What better than a dip in the stream nearby to get the stink of the days off. A quick trek over a field and simply get into the stream. Now if this stream had been half a degree colder we would have been able to skate on the thing. Katie got in up to her knees and bent down to wash.. Slipped… and disappeared under. She soon was back beside me on the bank. There was no way that I wouldn't be able to get in now so after a couple of minute, psyching myself up for it I threw myself in and yes… It was the coldest water I have ever been in.
Thoroughly refreshed and riddled with sandfly bites we enjoyed some more dehydrated and took to our bunks. Deep joy. We were greeted by semi naked middle aged saggy Germans in rather ill fitting underwear and we found that the loud Americans from the previous night were right next to us. Ond of the German men was sitting on his bed, looking at his photos, in his skimpy briefs with his "boys outside the barracks" and one of the Americans decided that they would unpack and repack his entire rucksack at 11pm by head torch light. This in itself shouldn't keep me awake but when everything in his bag was inside a plastic bag inside another plastic bag and finally individually wrapped in a plastic bag the rustling starts to get to you after a while! Not only was he content to keep the dorm awake throughout the night he also decided that he would unpack and repack in the morning too! What a jerk!
Our third day started on the flat walking through the woods before bringing us out to a clearing about 2kms wide where a huge landslip had torn all the trees and vegetation up and replaced them with huge boulders from the surrounding hill sides. The track steadily weaved its way through the boulder field and back into the forest. We were really moving at a pace as the weather looked as if it was closing in. We had another night booked at the next hut leaving us was a leisurely stroll out the next day. As we reached the hut well before everyone else and before lunchtime and it was only another 3 hours from that point, we decided to press on and save ourselves from another dehydrated meal and a night of bag rustling and more nude Germans!
We walked at breakneck speed through the dense fern forests and finished the trail a full day early. We had probably the best weather we could have hoped for giving us amazing views, a chance to top up our tans and as we had finished before we thought it gave us some extra time with Olivia.
Or so we thought. When we got back to the campsite we found that Olivia had left the van there, gone to Queenstown, then got a flight to Christchurch to go to a wedding!
Time for the two of us to take a leisurely drive back up to Christchurch!