Seb on TA

Ferry at Bluff: Reunion with the Scotsman Kieran. We met near Wanaka. Meet two German girls from my town. Good to hear that dialect. Sea is rough. Waves crash the window. Too rough for my stomach. Stewart island is love at first sight. Fish some spotties for dinner. Cut them with a shell fragment. Camp off trail beyond Port William. Hear a Kiwi at night. Awake with the birds: Tuis and Kererus, Fantails and some new sounds. Is it the Kokako, which brings 10000$ to the one that can prove its existence? Catch a leather jacket and a wrasse for lunch. Shellfish as bait. Sit at Bungaree hut and stare at the waves. Oystercatchers and seagulls. Traces of deers and sealions. Camp in the forest. Wake up two times by what seems to be the sound of a small biped - as close as a meter. Can't see a thing. The sky pitch black as the forest floor. Later spot three deers in-between trees, gazing at me. Catch a bluecod and an even bigger wrasse near Christmas hut. Find a wreckage. Remove a thin

Misty morning. Muddy forest. Bushwacking through ferns and tussock. Bellbirds, Fantails and Tomtits. Rotten wood blue as indigo, river-stones red as rost. Meet nobos every couple hours. All of them have a message for me: "You never gonna make it!" It's from Melissa and Chris. After more than two weeks together we share a sense of humor. Out of Takitimu forest. Cellphone coverage on a nameless peak. Reunion with Jeremy from Grenoble. He was the first nobo I ever met, when he was preparing on northisland. See a deer and couple hares. Farmland, paddocks. Cows and calves and muscular heavy bulls. Still frighten me. Eat white mushrooms. Scenery reminds me at the first weeks. Too lazy to put shoes off for river crossing. What have I become? Funny day. Sun chases me out of tent. It's heating up quickly. Good chatts with the nobos. Eventually clouds cover the sky and all of sudden it's pleasant to walk. Kiwi couple walks with me until the evening. Then camp in the p

Walk around the lake, climb up the valley until the saddle, then descend and repeat. This time it's lake Wanaka. Newworld, Wanaka tree. Motatapu River. Join the trouts for a bath. Fern Burn hut. Didn't sleep last night. New year can wait. Roses Hut. It's 2018 now. Some cure their hangover. We get up and hike. Dusty pathline cuts through grassy mountains. Marvelous views. Can see far ahead and behind. Exhausting climbs, steep descends. My foot starts to hurt. I have a terrible suspicion. End the day at 3pm, saying Goodbye to Melissa and Chris. Rattling noise in the night. Bright moon. Get up and kill the possum in my trap. Arrowtown. Covered in dew. Another hill. Forget the trail, I walk the river. Cold water numbs my aching feet. Lupines and berries as the river becomes broad. A couple panning for gold. Another hill and finally Arrowtown. Get an ice-cream from two curious people in the park. WiFi, checking for options. The continuation of the trail is at risk. It feel