Distance travelled today: 16 km

Total TA distance covered: 1783 km

On my way holidays.

Today was an easy day. A 16 km walk mostly on roads to Havelock so no need to rush. Anakiwa doesn’t have any shops to speak of and I was out of breakfast food. The lovely Anakiwa Lodge & YHA hosts looked after me though and for $10 I was provided with a bowl of fresh fruit (oranges, banana, kiwi fruit & strawberries), 4 pieces of bread for toast plus a couple of jams, a bowl of museli and milk – the cheapest breakfast of champions around.

I had a shared dorm last night but no-one else turned up and I was able to explode the contents of my pack across the room to get stuff dried out.

After breaky I headed out onto the trail and found that instead of having to walk on the road for the first 4 km there was a gravelled path just off the road to separte walkers from the traffic. Perfect. But once out onto the main road towards Havelock it was back onto the frustrating narrow roads with little room to walk. No verge to speak of and walking on the white line, where there was on, right on the edge of the bitumen, traffic wizzing past. Not much fun.

Around 12km in, the trail did leave the road for a bit but only to cut off a wide arch of road, reducing the distance from 6km to 3km. And while it was good to get off the road for a bit the trail section climbed straight up a hill, rising to 400m over 1 kilometre, and straight down the other side. I guess there is a reason to road curves around the hill. The sun was beating down hard and it was slow, tough work, winding up the track, essentially a power line easement to the top of the hill. Slow going on the steep descent down the other side as well. Back onto the road it was another 1.5km into town.

Grabbing some lunch I met two more TAers in a cafe and ran into Mario & Andrea later onas well. These guys are all heading onto Pelorus Bridge tonight to start the famous Richmond Range. For me, I’m heading off trail for a couple of days to meet up with Jacinta and have a mini holiday within a holiday. The section between Havelock and Pelorus Bridge is predominately road walking on a very busy road and I decided that rather than walk this and not enjoy it I’d get the bus into Nelson to meet up with Jac. Most TAers are choosing to hitch this section. After our micro holiday, I’ll get dropped off at Pelorus Bridge and continue into the Richmond Range, into a main highlight of the trail and real mountains.

After two months apart I can’t wait to catch up with Jac but it doesn’t sound like there will be much rest. It will be her birthday and an action packed one with mountain biking, of course, and some canyoning.

Anyway, for all the blog followers out there, I won’t be picking the trail back up until Monday. Also once in the ranges updates will be few and far between for the next little bit. I’ll continue to write a daily update but won’t be able to post anythng online until in a town. The next 30 days goes something like this:

• Pelorus Bridge to St Arnaud: 7 to 8 days
• St Arnaud to Boyle Village: 7 to 8 days
• Boyle Village to Arthurs Pass: 3 to 4 days
• Arthurs Pass to Lake Coleridge: 2 to 3 days
• Lake Coleridge to Tekapo: 6 to 7 days

So only 4  or 5 towns passed through towards Tekapo.

For everyone that is reading this blog, please keep reading and hope you are enjoying it. Here is a snap shot of the site stats if you’re interested, receiving close to 100 hits a day and more than 750 a week. That is awesome. I started this as a diary for myself but it’s great to see so many people taking a interest as well. Thank you all.