Day 119: Camp Stream Hut to Lake Tekapo (2354-2389)

Tuesday, March 28

Mice crawled around in the hut for a lot of the night, but they didn't bother me in the top bunk. The bunk was a bit shorter than me, but it was fine. Maybe the bunks are short because the hut is over 100 years old. The sign on the door says the hut it from 1898.

I woke up with my phone only at 40%. My top-up battery died last night while it was charging my phone. That's a first for the trip. I usually like its charge to be higher so I don't need to worry about checking the GPS too much. I went out to ask Lauren and Sam if they had any extra battery. Luckily they did so I plugged in my phone while we ate breakfast and packed up.

I went to use the drop toilet and heard laughing coming from the hut. There was a dead mouse in Jeremy's bed! And at some point during the night a mouse wriggled through the tiny hole in the top of Jennie's backpack and ate some of their muesli. Luckily they had plenty of food and were planning to get into Lake Tekapo today.

As everyone was getting packed up, Jennie hung the mouse in the hut doorway as a message to all the other mice. Hopefully they get it.

Jennie and David left and Jeremy started hiking shortly after them. Sam, Lauren and I left around 9.

The trail was really easy to follow - or so I thought. At one point I thought I was following the trail along the river and realized we were supposed to be up a ridge. We had a steep climb up through some tussock to get on the trail, but luckily we didn't need to hike up any loose ground. It wasn't too bad. It just would have been much more gradual on the real trail. Once we were a bit higher it was really easy to pick out the trail markers again.

We followed the markers to a gravel ski area access road and saw a NOBOer on the way there. When we got to the road, Jennie, David and Jeremy were there. We stopped for a snack, Jennie and David took the ski road to Lillybank Road, and Jeremy took a detour from the trail to go more uphill and get a better view of Mt Cook.

After our snack, the three of us followed the TA and listened to a West Wing Weekly podcast since it seemed like we'd be free of rivers the rest of the way.

The trail was so nice that we could usually walk two people wide on the trail. We saw sheep and then ran into Jeremy. He had stopped to talk with a NOBOer. The four of us walked together the rest of the way to the road. We stopped for a food break and then Jeremy and Sam led the way in their bare feet. Lauren and I followed in our shoes. It was a beautiful walk with amazing views of Lake Tekapo and the mountains behind it.

Jeremy told us he and his parents had family friends picking them up at the end of the trail. Bronnie and Warren. As we took the last downhill down to the road, we saw them with Jennie and David. Warren was so kind and drove them to town and came all the way back to get us and take us to town as well. He dropped us off right at the Holiday Park where we were staying. It was so nice! And it kept us from having to do the long 16-kilometer road walk into town.

We checked into the Holiday Park and found the yurts we were staying in. They were glamping tents shaped like big garlic cloves. Each one had 5 cots arranged in a circle. And each cot had an extra blanket and a hot water bottle. We took showers before walking into town to find food. They had a trailer fitted with bathrooms, showers and a dish cleaning station. It was brand new and really clean.

As we were all in the process of unpacking, we saw Jeremy walk by. We told him our plan and found him when we were ready to head into town to get food. We checked the restaurants on the whole strip, but the best bang for our bucks seemed to be the first tavern we walked by. I was so hungry and was excited to eat.

While we were walking back to the tavern after our restaurant scope-out, we saw Noemi. She and Karolina both joined us for food and beer. It was really fun. The three of them are continuing the trail tomorrow. Noemi is renting a bike for a day. I wrote down the name of the company she used because it sounded like a good idea.

Lauren, Sam and I were taking a zero day in Tekapo tomorrow. Sadly they have to get on bus to go back to Christchurch and then Fairbanks. I'm going to miss them.

We left the dinner festivities a little before 8 so we could do some shopping at the four square before they closed. We got supplies to make breakfast nachos tomorrow and Tim Tam slams tonight.

We carried the food back to the glamping area and made our Tim Tam slams and filled up our hot water bottles. After talking for a bit we all fell asleep.