Day 94-96 | Km 2573 - 2636 | Wanaka & The Motatapu Track

Kiwi bloke on the Motatapu: ‘ Your as agile as a gazell mate!’

As appreciative as I was of the comment, in that moment I felt like a gazelle wearing gumboots! I’d had to ditch my beloved Joe Nimble trail shoes in Wanaka, ripped to shreds by the merciless rocky terrain of the South Island in only 4 weeks. Best thing I could find that ticked 2 out of 3 boxes I look for in a shoe (wide toe box, zero drop, minimal sole) were some ‘Barefoot’ Merrells. Considering I’ve worn nothing but totally minimal shoes for the last 10 years, place even the smallest amount of cushioning under my feet and I’m feeling slightly weirded out. I love feeling grounded and being totally aware of what’s happening under foot, dampen that sensation down and my proprioception goes a little awry. Imagine sticking little booties on a dog and how they walk funny lifting their paws high. To some extent that was me getting used to my new shoes. As you can tell from the picture below, it took a while!

I stayed with the beautiful Ron and Claudia in Wanaka, yet again welcoming my waif and stray self into their home with open arms. Having ran the trail from Albert Town - Wanaka and round to Glendhu Bay at Christmas I opted to cycle the route. Mainly to avoid giving my feet a baptism of fire wearing new shoes. That wasn’t until after Captain Ron took me on a fly by over Wanaka, the Cascade Saddle in Mount Aspiring National Park and the Motatapu Track I was about to begin the following day. What a treat to see the Dart Glacier from above!

~130kmphr - just my run speed after 3 coffees. I

Although a blue bird day, Ron warned me it may be a bumpy ride as we passed over the saddle. I’m proud to say I kept my cooked breakfast down, and a lie down and cuddles with Jess after helped.

Morning rain, Claudia’s yummy home baking and more Jess cuddles meant I happily had a late start out from Wanaka. I made it to the first hut on the Motatapu Track - Fern Burn Hut, with easy access for day hikers from the start of the track, it was already pretty full by the time I arrived. I’d heard this hut had quite the possum problem too so for both reasons I was more than happy to pitch my tent outside. At midnight I woke to the noise of possums running around on the hut’s roof, feeling pretty smug with myself for opting to camp outside, I nestled into my sleeping bag. Then one came sniffing around my tent so I knocked the inner to shoo it away. It got the idea, but it’s mate chasing after him was b-lining straight for me. I braced for impact. At full speed the dumb thing tripped on the guideline of my tent, ripping the tent peg out the ground and squealing dramatically from the fright as it tumbled off into the night leaving me with a tent on my head! I didn’t feel so smug having to re-erect my tent in the middle of the night!

I woke early the following morning with the intent of covering some good ground, not realising I had inadvertently given myself a version of the 3 peaks challenge. Lesson here: always check elevation before making a distance goal. Nothing truly seemed like a challenge after missioning a long day in Richmond Ranges (now feeling like a distant memory), so I was happy to take it on and go with the flow.

I’m still slightly baffled at how I managed to find myself pegged on a ridge line by my hiking pole but you never know what the day may bring! On descending the ridge pictured below, with beautiful drops either side, as I stepped down my hiking pole somehow got stuck between the two layers of shorts. Momentum carried me forwards, up over my pole, leaving my left foot dangling mid air and my right hopping down the ridge along side it as I yelled out loud ‘no, no, noooo’ watching my pole bend with the pressure of me one end and it being stuck in the floor at the other. I didn’t worry I was about to fall off the ridge, more that I was about to snap one of my beautiful trail twins! Thank goodness Leki make some decent equipment.

That hiking pole incident…

Looking back down the Motatapu Valley from Rosie’s Saddle

I’d just finished lunch at Rosie’s hut, which looks straight back down the Motatapu Valley, when I heard the familiar rumble of a low flying plane… it was only Ron doing a fly-by in his little yellow Piper Cub. I whooped and yelled from the front decking waving as he tilted the wings side to side waving back and circling a few times over the hut. What a legend. Ron actually built his plane himself. And Duotone, a Kiteboarding brand made an awesome little film about him and his son/my buddy Shayne - providing the links to his rock and roll parents - thank you! Check the film out here, it’s fab.

After climbing over Rosie’s saddle it dawned on me this was effectively the last mountain range I’d head through before reaching my final destination and trail end in Bluff. I had mixed feelings about that; sadness that my epic adventure would be over, excitement in the thought of heading back home to Jamie and a little ache deep inside that life can’t always be as simple and carefree. If it were though, would we really appreciate to the same extent the beauty of hiking and wild camping out in nature?

Seeing as I was obviously in a contemplative mood, I was thinking about the last time Captain Ron took me flying. It was right before an interview for the position of NZ Olympic Snow Sports team physio. A role that if given, I would have smashed it out of the snow park so to speak and be living in Jamie and my dream town of Wanaka. It was also a role that, without having completed my post-graduate diploma at the time, I would be lucky to get. Honest gut feeling; even with experience of working with a sports team at two previous Commonwealth Games, I didn’t have any high performance sports experience in NZ, so I was mildly in over my head and knew as much. The saying goes, ‘fake it till you make it’ but I’m afraid I know myself and unless I have full confidence in my abilities and where I stand I’m not faking anything. Saying that, I took the opportunity to give it my best shot and at least use it as a starting point to introduce myself and experience an interview of that calibre so that when heart of hearts I’m ready, and a high performance sports opportunity arises again, then that snow park better watch itself! Cut a long story short, I was nervous as hell. Ron saw through me and to calm my nerves (?!) handed me the reigns of his Piper Cub mid flight. Worked a treat, you can’t think much about anything when your flying sky high in a bush plane. Gave me something to talk about in my interview at least!

Back to me contemplating life up on Rosie’s Saddle… if I had been given the job, there’s no way I would have been sat there in that moment, looking back at such an incredible life changing adventure I’ve experienced over the last 3 months. I’m a total believer things happen for a reason. If I still want a high performance sports job, then I’ll work my ass off to get there, for now though my heart is totally content in run/hiking the last 300km of this incredible country :)

Final leg of the day was a 5km river walk down to Macetown, an old deserted gold mining settlement. The sun had dropped behind the mountains casting the river into shade, suddenly making it feel quite cold and miles from anywhere. I took the opportunity to put my new shoes to the washing machine test on rapid cycle… just wish it was a warm wash, because I set my tent up standing on 2 numb ice blocks.

Lake Wanaka.