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