A Dangerous Business

Date: 8th February 2024

Start: Camp Stream Hut (km 2385.4)

End: Lake Tekapo (km 2419.3)

Distance Travelled: 18.2 km walked + 15.7 km hitched (33.9 km total)

Total Distance Completed: 2257 km

Song Currently Stuck in Head: Unity by for KING & COUNTRY

Schmickness of the Four Square in Tekapo: off the charts schmick

At this point I don’t know why I bother setting an alarm when sleeping in huts. There’s almost always someone waking up before me and making enough noise as they get ready to rouse me. Slowly I got up and started boiling water for my morning coffee. That cream that Matt gave me last night had worked wonders, the pain in my feet having almost completely gone away. What hadn’t gone away was my lack of enthusiasm for early mornings and I don’t imagine that will change anytime soon, much to the chagrin of my friends who wanted to get going at this time.

The terrain and trail quality of the Two Thumb Track is quite similar to the last two sections: two days of hard climbing and traversing, with one final long day on an easy, flat trail. Only one small hill stood in our way, the rest being a gradual descent down to the lake’s edge.

The climb started after we followed Camp Stream down to its confluence with the Coal River which we crossed easily. You’d think after climbing up to Stag Saddle yesterday that we’d be fit and ready for any ascents. Nope. This one was surprisingly tough. I had to stop several times to give my lungs a break which had the bonus effect of giving me time to turn around and see the sun lighting up the hills on the opposite side of the river.

Better views awaited me at the top, with the southern alps to the west slowly revealing themselves as the morning cloud lifted.

With that said, someone had clearly forgotten to tell the clouds hanging over Lake Tekapo that they are supposed to leave once the sun is up.

As time went on the memo arrived and the clouds slowly parted to reveal a stunningly blue lake. It may have been the same large body of water I first laid eyes on yesterday, but now up close the colours of the lake were much more vibrant.

7 km from the end, Sean came up and joined us for the way down to the road. Because of his work schedule, this would be the last time Melly would get to meet with him before finishing the trail. As we progressed, the lake loomed ever larger, yet I noticed we were still pretty high above it. There’s gonna be a steep finish, isn’t there?

Well, not really. Only a couple of small steep bits had to be crossed to reach the road where Sean’s van was waiting. He offered us some Bundaberg drinks whilst we had lunch and then took everyone’s packs so they could slack pack the 15 km of roads into town. I opted to drive in with him, first visiting the Four Square to resupply for the next section. I was last here in 2012 on a family road trip and I really can’t remember the township being this built up. The Four Square is a perfect example of this. It looked very smart, almost like a big chain supermarket. The prices were still very much Four Square prices, however.

After resupplying, Sean and I drove back down the road to a park at the edge of town which had an easy pitch and putt disc golf course. I convinced Sean to give it a go who seemed to have a good amount of fun.

The “proper” hikers showed up an hour later, the delay being due to having a swim in the lake. Once in town they all did their own resupply and then we went our separate ways. Melly and Sean were staying at the holiday park whilst he three boys had gotten some details from a trail angel named Billy to camp at his place. Before going there we nabbed some fish and chips, eating it by the lakefront. Bellies full, we walked down to the Church of the Good Shepherd where we met up with Billy. His place was pretty basic, but had everything one could want from a place to pitch a tent. As the sun set, I went back out to go for a quick walk down to the church, witnessing the clouds doing some funky things.

Why walk now? The church was cluttered with tourists earlier on, making it nigh on impossible to get a good shot of it. Now in the evening, most of them had gone to bed. I got my shot in with just enough light in the day remaining.

Back at base, I applied more of that antifungal cream and crashed into my tent, hoping to get a good amount of rest before tomorrow’s ride to Lake Ohau. Oh yes, I’m hopping on a bike again, clearly not having learnt my lesson from the Timber Trail.

At least it won’t be hilly?