A Dangerous Business

Date: 16th February 2024

Start: Wanaka (km 2615.8)

End: Fern Burn Hut (km 2640.5)

Distance Travelled: 24.7 km

Total Distance Completed: 2487 km

Song Currently Stuck in Head: Forever Young by Alphaville

First Impressions of the Motatapu: I’m getting Tararua vibes (and it’s scaring me)

*cracks knuckles*

Yep, it’s one of those tracks. The Motatapu. On the short side, but it certainly packs a punch. Today our little group would tackle a small section of it. First things first, breakfast from a toasted sandwich shop in Wanaka after being dropped off by dad. Then it was a short walk to the holiday park to leave my pack in a safe hands of Paul and Maria, Melly’s friends who would be joining us for the next four days to Queenstown. They were happy to take our packs to the start, meaning we’ve got a nice bit of slack packing beforehand, starting by some random tree in the lake that everyone wanted to photograph.

A gravel, coast-hugging pathway would take us all the way around to Glendhu Bay. I’m glad we’re walking the path today and not tomorrow as we’d have to battle through a few hundred triathletes to get there. Today was fairly quiet, just a few cyclists to keep out of the way of.

One thing that was bothering me was how tired I was feeling. I slept well, I just didn’t sleep enough. I was also probably coming down from the coffee I had with breakfast. Yawning non-stop, I had to force myself on many an occasion to pick up the pace to keep up with the others. There was still a lot of trail to go.

Lake Wanaka was totally still today, quite the change from the rough waters I saw yesterday. Traffic on the lake was low, only a couple of jet boats passed us on our way to Glendhu Bay. Nearing said bay, the sounds of some sporting event got ever louder and after a quick ice cream break at the holiday park we figured out why. It was some school sports carnival, with part of the road leading to the start of the Motatapu blocked off to let the kids run on it unimpeded. This is also where we made our rendezvous with Paul and Maria (and sadly our heavy packs), leaving together now in a group of 6 down the gravel road to the start of the track.

The trail passes over the Motatapu and Soho pastoral leases. As a condition of them being sold to new overseas owners in the mid-2000’s, they had to fund the construction of this track and the huts along the route. The new owner? Shania Twain. Yep, that came as a surprise to me too. That does impress me much.

So how was this track? Well the first few kilometres are through farm fields so they’re pretty easy, but it doesn’t last long at all before we’re back into some classic TA nonsense.

Narrow trail on a hillside, overgrown with tussock and matagouri, and the occasional boulder to scramble over. Yep, we’re back to fighting for every step we take. At least one of the river crossings we bridged, but that’s where the track amenities ended, following the Fern Burn upstream crawling over the cliffs high above it.

The one good thing I can say about the trail is that it was easy to follow with lots of marker poles and a generally highly visible track that stood out from the environment around it. Still, it was tough, and that’s coming from the section that the trail notes claim is the easiest. Doing my best not to think about the hardships tomorrow will bring, I focused on what was ahead of me, namely plenty more small, steep climbs and drops to take me all the way to Fern Burn Hut.

Shania Twain, you know how to build a good hut. 12 beds, loads of living space, and a big old bench to cook on. Quite a nice hut that – surprisingly – we would only be sharing with Destroyer and Zilla. That made it feel like a bit of a mansion for us hikers. The evening and dinner progressed without incident, but then Matt asked me to borrow my pot. More hot chocolates? Not quite, this wasn’t to be a drink he was making. No, because he unveiled two punnets of strawberries and a banana. Is my man about to make a fondue?

Yep, that’s exactly what he’s making. A fondue. On Te Araroa. That’s got to be a first. It’s pretty simple, just melting a block of Whittaker’s in a smaller pot floating in mine (filled with boiling water) and then dunking the fruit of your choosing in it. It was a delicious as it looks. Very healthy too, I don’t think I’ve ever eaten that much fresh fruit on a multi-day hike before. With that business attended to, I settled into my sleeping bag and mentally began bracing myself for what tomorrow would be like. Nothing easy, that’s for sure.