Main page of the Through-Hike with overview of the hiked route

The last stage of my New Zealand trip has begun. There are only 220 km left to Bluff. I have planned to arrive by the end of February. It’s a bit of a challenge, but it should still be doable.

I had promised Josie months ago that I would definitely be there for her birthday, wherever she would be. At the time, I thought I would be ahead of her, but as it turned out, she had passed me a few weeks ago. That further inspired me to catch up with her and make good on my promise.

To get back to the trail, I had to hitchhike about 25 km east from Te Anau. I made my way to the highway after filling up on provisions one last time and eating a hearty breakfast with my trail family once again. Just before I reached the end of town, I saw a familiar face in the distance.

It was the American Addison, whom I had met for the first time at the very beginning on the North Island and who crossed my path every now and then. Without her, I would have had to wait quite a while longer for a ride. As a woman it is nevertheless, as a rule, somewhat more simply to be picked up on the road side. I think I should let my hair grow considerably longer and shave my legs.

As it turned out, the lady who picked us up lived in Berlin for a while, in 1953. Incredible to meet someone who experienced Germany before the Wall. Unfortunately, she didn’t hear so well, so we had trouble talking to her.

Rain was forecast for the coming days. Since I had plenty of opportunity to soak up lots of sun the past few weeks, it didn’t bother me much. Once I get going, I don’t get cold that fast. The many climbs also help to heat me up from the inside. Once I have set a goal in my head, I can just roll along with full momentum.

In heavy rain at times, I struggled up the slopes, one step at a time, hiking poles pressed into the ground with full force to give me extra boost. At the top, it temporarily cleared up a bit and I got a view of craggy rocks amid tussocks and forests.

I spotted another hiker on the horizon who I tried to catch up with. Unfortunately, it took longer than I thought. The poorly visible markings between the tall grass, made finding the actual trail pretty much impossible and I had to find my own way. Between the countless bushes you can hear every now and then a small rivulet splashing. Unfortunately not always in time. So it happened the one or other time that one of my feet disappeared in a water hole.

I had made only few breaks, in order not to stretch the nearly 40 km long day still further. Thus it came that I pulled myself only every few hours a muesli bar in and also only stopped for half an hour around 15 o’clock to have lunch in a hut. An older man coming from the other direction warned me about the length of the next section. It had taken him 6 hours, he warned. Since this coincided with the DOC time, it didn’t bother me all that much.

As planned, I arrived after 9 hours in the hut. I actually had actually anticipated to camp there, because I had already heard that some people were ahead of me and the hut has only 4 bunks. As it turned out, only Ramona was there, an Austrian I had met a few times before. Everyone else had decided to move on.

After a good night’s sleep, I started the next leg full of energy. Once again, I had just under 40 kilometers ahead of me. As was the case almost every day from then on. The first few hours it went a mountain steeply up, up to the campground where the companies of Ramona had said goodbye on the previous day. The 6 hours for 9 kilometers shown on the sign seemed almost like a joke to me. I brought it then without larger exertion after 2.5 hours behind me. On the further way a farmer pointed out that he does not want in any case that one runs over his land.

The trail was therefore rerouted over another hill, which one could actually have easily circumnavigated via a dirt road. I didn’t pay any attention to the sign for now and just kept plodding along. What could have happened? Halfway, until then out of my field of vision, a farm appeared. I thought I could have just sneaked through, but I also didn’t want to cause any stress that could later have an effect on other TA hikers. Therefore, I turned on my heel and booted back up to the trail proper. As I could see from the comments on the Far Out App, there seems to have been an incident where a hiker broke into a farmer’s cabin, slept there and stole food. Since then he seems to be probably not so squeamish with the crossing of his land.

At the first opportunity with reception, I took my cell phone out of flight mode to see if there was any news from Josie. She did not make it very clear to me that she had taken a break day. Therefore, I caught up with her on the very same day. It was a joyous reunion, with nuzzles and lifting around, and all that sort of thing. We stayed at a farm that provided a little cottage with a sleeping room and fireplace for hikers. The fire radiated so much coziness that it captured Josie and her appendage Peta, smoothly one day. After a long, cold day, a hot shower and the fireplace was just what I needed to get me going again.

Since Josie and I hadn’t seen each other in a long time, there was so much catching up to do and it also took us a little while to adjust to each other again. A lot happened with both of us, everyone grows and changes with such an experience as Te Araroa. You meet all kinds of people, spend a not inconsiderable amount of time with them, and share some very intimate things and moments with some of them. Here, what you experience in a given period of time seems to take place in a much more compressed way. Not seeing each other for a few weeks then seems almost like half an eternity.

Apparently the planners of Te Araroa have managed it in such a way that all good things come together again at the end. On the last 200 km we had to overcome great heights again, wade in the mud up to the knees, hike along a long beach and also bring a few kilometers on the road behind us. It’s almost like a kind of summary of what has kept us busy over the past few months.

On the evening before the last day, a few more hikers have gathered in Invercargill. All of them seem to be stranded here before the last stage. Familiar faces have gathered that I had lost track of for a while. As described before, I had a pretty good overview of who was ahead of me via the logbooks of the huts. A big question that I always ask myself is how many are still coming after us. You do register for the trail, which is not mandatory, but there doesn’t seem to be any updates on who finished the trail, when and where. My suggestion would be to email everyone who registered after a while to ask them to fill out a completion questionnaire. This would also help determine, for example, how many people actually arrive at the finish line.

Official website of Te Araroa