30th November 2006

Today we are driving down to camp at Te Waewae Bay on the South coast, to meet Youthline volunteers. We intend to start very early tomorrow morning. The weather forecast is for rain/snow?

1st - 9th December 2006

The first week of our trip has contained it all - flurries of hail, knee deep snow, waist deep mud and bursts of well-placed sunshine. After wandering over the Hump Ridge we swapped packs for paddles for the trip across Lake Hauroko. Dire warnings from locals ("Hauroko!?... 54 knot winds!... Seven metre waves!") had us quaking in our kayaks, but fine weather prevailed and we managed to paddle the whole lake in a single 35km burst, putting us a full day ahead of schedule, despite a NW headwind (...which switched to an ideal southerly the moment we got into the hut). Thank you Val for taking the kayaks back to the support crew we really appreciate your help.

We had more amazing weather and luck on the Dusky Track, covering great distances through muddy tracks which swallowed us up to our thighs - suction on full! So much fun! After pulling off an eleven hour day 5, we groaned into our packs the next morning, and managed to arrive at Kintail Hut at the same time as a helicopter. We delayed our lunchtime swim to check things out and had the pleasure of meeting Hannibal Hayes, our helicopter hero, who kindly offered to portage our packs over to Upper Spey Hut, leaving us unburdened for the spectacular climb over Centre Pass. A massive thanks to Richard and the DOC team for looking after our packs... and good joke guys [Nick and Hamish]!!

With a little logistical sleight of hand (thanks Jay and Phil! You ROCK!!!!) our kayaks arrived at Manapouri a day early. We quashed more warnings ("Manapouri!?... You can't paddle that!... It's too big!") by crossing Manapouri in a single afternoon, thanking our spirit guides for their weather manipulation as an uncommon westerly blew us all the way to Shallow Bay. A sneak mosquito attack kept us awake most of the night, giving us the perfect opportunity to see the full moon's beautiful reflection in the lake.

A cruisy 22km walk along the Keppler Track yesterday led us into Te Anau for a well deserved rest, complete with food, beer, spa and sleep. Cheers to Niki, James and Sumit for their company on various parts of our journey thus far. Massive thanks and some seriously big hugs to Jill, Kay and Lara for walking in and collecting the kayaks from Shallow Bay hut.

More adventures to come as we set off tomorrow to paddle the length of Lake Te Anau!

At a Glance

Day One - Te Waewae Bay - Teal Bay Hut

Day Two - Teal Bay Hut - Hauroko Road End

Day Three - Lake Hauroko Road end, all the way up Hauroko - Hauroko Burn Hut

Day Four - Hauroko Burn Hut - Halfway Hut

Day Five - Halfway Hut - Loch Maree Hut

Day Six - Loch Maree Hut - Upper Spey Hut

Day Seven - Upper Spey Hut across Manapouri - Shallow Bay Hut

Day Eight - Shallow Bay Hut - Te Anau

Day Nine - Rest Day

by Lani, Helen and Bronwen  in Te Anau 9/12/2006

10th - 15th December 2006

Lake Te Anau

The weather wizards struck again!! An Amazing Mana Wahine micro-climate was experienced on both days of kayaking Lake Te Anau. Blue sky, sun and glassy waters gave us ample time to feed the excitable sandflies, watch Tui's zipping through flowering Southern Rata, dive in for some refreshing swims ourselves and lounge on hot rocks to dry. More than ideal conditions meant we paddled over 2/3rds of the lake to camp at Camps Bay, which left enough time to head out with Chris on his boat up the North Arm and for Bronwen to gain control of the boat to zoom us back to camp smiling from ear to ear.....such a petrol head! Huge thanks to Chris for all the fun with the boat and for battling the mighty southerly at Te Anau Downs with our kayaks on board your boat (it can't have been an easy task). We have now exchanged our kayaks for our hiking boots, de-didymoed and headed up to Glade Burn in preparation for our ascent of Glade and U Pass.

Fiordland

Alas the predicted high winds and rain meant we altered our route and climbed over dore Pass. In cloudy, wet conditions the pass was pleasantly challening and spectacular as cascades appeared and disappeared in the mist. The descent was slippery and tricky and saw several scratch-free stumbles before flattening out and meandering down through the trees and across the Eglington river.

After camping at the Cascade Creek we headed to the Divide our the tops with spectacular views of Mount Christina and Lake Marian. Today we scampered along the Routeburn leaving Fiordland behind for our next set of challenges in the Aspiring National Park. Big , big love to Sabina (your muesli bars are awesome and thanks for driving around to the Routeburn car park with all our mountain gear, and the tourists who gave us Tim-tams at the Divide....

At a Glance

Day 10 - Te Anau South - Camp Bay

Day 11 - Camp Bay - Glade House Flat

Day 12 - Glade House Flat - Cascade Creek

Day 13 - Cascade Creek - Key Summit

Day 14 - Key Summit - Rockburn/McIntyres Hut

Day 15 - Rockburn/McIntyres Hut - Daly's Flat

by Helen, Lani and Bronwen via Naikai 15/12/2006