TA DNF

Blisters with dirt in them. Too much pain to be fun any more. I tried running today but gave up near bush burn. About 35km.

Popped some compeeds on and hope they're better soon..

Te Araroa day 3

Felt much better today, easier leg. I did longwood range and forest, and reached woodlaw. 

The view from the top of longwood forest

The ironic telecoms on bald hill. Typically only gave me two bars of signal!?

Some deer, is this where prince Charles farms them for Richmond park? 

38km maybe more, trying to find level ground for camping.

10hrs! 

Te Araroa Day 2

Set off feeling ok not 100%. Met a French couple Nico and Lucy who were also doing the Te Araroa. They said I made the right decision to not do Bluff. It was a min dumbing 30k road. Quite warm today. No signal still, I guess it might take a few days. Heading toward my first interesting looking ascent 

Near to the start of the climb I met a guy called Kevin hawkes, who does is heavily involved with the trail. He kindly volunteered himself to drop off some food for me! I kind of heard of the hospitality of the kiwis and never quite believed it. Kevin advised me the next part would be tough and to possibly stay at martins hut at the top. I said initially I should be fine. But he was right. Also I didn't help that it finally started raining and hasn't stopped..

The forest before the rain

The forest also contained various opportunities for SUDDEN DEATH in the form of dug out canals. The area was once used for mining gold. So every 800meters you found things like this, or worse. One just had a piece of rope

Any way, this is all in a fairly random order. Hut life ain't so bad

About 22km with loads of switch backs so maybe more

8hrs

Te Araroa Day 1

I still had to get to the start at this point. So I had to get up for 4am as my coach was leaving at 6am from town. 

5am at Queens town

Basically I decided I wanted to start today and after talking to some locals about the first section. I also decided it would be better to start from Invercargill. 

Invercargill was quite industrial. It has some nice bits and typically very clean. But basically I wanted to head for the mountains! I eventually decided to try to get to the foot of the mountain at least which was 48km away. It was quite windy and I had two beaches to cross. Basically the first was a sandstorm with a river crossing. I decided to take the long way around the river crossing as my feet were rubbing from the heat and the sand. Running/hiking through sand and strong winds was pretty tough going. It eventually wore me down to a walk before reaching a campsite at the end of Colac Bay. Hopefully today will be easier! Honestly heading up the mountain sounds easier than being sand blind with head winds so strong it's picking things out of your bag! But there were some good views. Sadly if I stopped to take a photo I'd probably be still chaising my phone down the beach now.. 

In other news these are lovely!

And I had my first taste of Kiwi ale last night which was also good. I only had 1 but forgot to write down what it was. So I'll just have to test a few more to see if I can jog my memory.

Hardly any signal so days 1 and 2 might get uploaded together.

48km 

About 8hrs

Finally arrived...

I'm in queenstown. The down side is there is something wrong with my sim and Vodafone. I've been to the shop twice. I'll go again tomorrow on my way through innvercargil. I may have to just blog when I can get wifi. 

Any way, typically tired. Just preping gear and food. Here's the view from the yma

Today 0miles run/hiked but a load to camping shops and such!