Trail Initiation: Road, Beach, Mud.

December 4-6, 75.9km (47.1 miles)

Day 0: December 3

On Sunday we stood at the edge of our favorite town, Te Anau, backpacks on, thumbs out. Mission: get to Invercargill to complete first resupply. In just a few minutes, an oversized pickup towing a shiny red boat pulls over. We scurry to the window, ask if they’re going south, and hop in.

Jack and Bren, workmates turned fishing mates, drive us to their hometown Invercargill, a place erased on most tourists maps. It’s home of the cheese roll, a delicacy Maddie learned to make at her first cafe job.

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Make at home!

Mix a bowl of heavy cream, shredded cheese, chopped onion, and onion soup powder. Gently microwave until gooey. Spread on a piece of white bread. Roll, and toast. Serve with butter.

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Jack dropped us at our favorite grocery chain, Pak n Save. We browsed the aisles in full hiker mode, trekking poles peeking out of our packs. We frequent the Pak N Save chain weekly, but this time we saw the shelves through a different lens - how exciting to try every flavor of tuna, instant rice and lollies! We brought our first 5 day food haul to a patch of grass, organizing the meals and rationing our treats.

Day 1: December 4

Big day. Morning mission: get to Bluff. A woman picked us up after a few minutes of waiting with our thumbs out. She introduced herself as, “Jannita - as in, ‘Jannita hand?’” She stopped by home on her way to Bluff to introduce us to her daughter and grand daughter, who laughed as we rolled down our window, giving us the look of “Moms picking up random strangers again..”

Jannita and her family loaded us up with cake balls for the journey ahead, and her granddaughter Sam joined us to the trailhead. Jannita of course insisted that we take a farewell photo together.

After all the commotion of hitching to the bottom of New Zealand, we were finally on our own. Just Maddie and Anna and 900 miles to walk. Within the first 10 minutes we lost the trail. Will our trail names be Dumb and Dumber? Let’s hope not. Soon enough we were back on track, walking over lush rolling hills, along southern coastline.

The glimmering sea views were only a tease, as the trail turned sharply onto none other than the state highway.

Road walking went like this: crunchy pavement beneath our feet, blasts of pine filled air from timber semis hurling along side us, stepping past more dead animals than alive (we’ll spare you the details). Despite all that, we received much trail generosity from the road: honks of encouragement, waving passengers, and a man who handed us an orange from his window.

Our excitement carried us for the first half of the day, but by kilometer 27, we finally admitted to each other that the soles of our feet had never hurt so badly. Thankfully, fixating on the thought of a cold drink at Four Square brought us to the finish line. We devoured chips and a jug of juice on the grass outside the shop. Then a man offered a ride for the last 5 km back to camp which we simply couldn’t refuse. He gave us beer to applaud us for our tough day.

Day 2: Dec 5

We knew this day would be brutal. 25km of beach walking. We preemptively taped up our feet after hearing about the horrors of beach walking, the wrath of sand devouring walkers’ fresh feet.

This section of the trail was also notoriously known for being wind swept and dreary, but we were greeted with warm sun, clear skies, and no wind. A beautiful way to spend a Tuesday.

When people complain about something being never ending, they have never walked 7 hours on a beach. Somehow we finished.

We stumbled up the steps of the local library and collapsed into the childrens beanbags. We soon decided that two sweaty girls taking over the childrens section with their massive backpacks weren’t the most welcome, so we vacated and enjoyed our lollies on the outside bench.

We settled into the local holiday park and we met our first batch of walkers, who validated the terrors of the endless beach. Once again, asleep before the sun went down.

Day 3: Dec 6

We revised our trail itinerary in order to skip 10km of beach walking and started the trail on new terrain: forest!

It was refreshing to feel feel mud and moss beneath our feet rather than the gritty sand. Today’s gear highlight: walking poles. Heroes to our mud navigation. We pulled up to camp early, our first hut on the trail, wahoo!

Menu highlights:

-first 3 days of the trail means luxury lunches: chorizo salami, apple, cheese and arugula wraps.

-Miso Mash: instant mash potatoes, instant gravy and miso paste. Don’t knock it til you try it.

Until next time!

Anna and Maddie

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