Day 30: Twizel to Pūkaki

We woke up late, and had an easy morning departing Twizel. It's 55 or so km to Tekapo, but there is only the one camping opportunity at the south end of Lake Pūkaki 11 km or so enroute. So we'd be forced to have a short day, and a marathon (technically an ultra-marathon) day to follow. So we had breakfast at the local café. We'd discovered a day earlier there was no option for any outdoor/hiking equipment of any worth in Twizel or Tekapo.

We are both in dire need of new shoes, the tread is wearing thin, and the sides are quickly becoming more hole than side. In addition, my socks are in a similar state, and there's no Icebreaker retailer until Wellington to get a free swap out—so I'll have to pick up a couple of pairs. The underwear have done a stellar job at stopping my thighs from chaffing, but they too are developing chinks in their armour around the inner thigh, a testament to their efficacy.

So we spent a long while at breakfast organising resupplys, ordering gear from all over to further up ahead at Mesopotamia Station.

After much mucking around we left Twizel in the mid to late afternoon, for our short walk up to Lake Pūkaki. This section, like the last day and a bit, was coincident with the Alps to Ocean cycle trail.

At Pūkaki we stopped at the visitor center. They had an interesting display about the history of the region, and a lot to do with the Iwi before and after colonisation, and the stolen land, and land protests at Ōmārama in the early 20th century. Quite similar in color to what happened earlier at Parihaka. What stuck out most to me was a simple quote:

Mō tāta, ā, mō, kā uri ā muri ake nei.

Which translates to:

For us and our children after us.

We arrived to the campsite to see that the council had crudely cellotaped up a self-contained campers only sign at the center of the site. Apparently they've changed their rules recently, for a reason that was not immediately apparent. The site was fully kitted with 4 toilets. The trail notes still list this spot as valid, and they were last updated in September. Indeed, not 300 m up the road there was a sigh saying that there was a tent spot here. Not having much option, we elected to set up anyway, but did so up on the hills away from everything. I cleared out a thistle from the middle of an ideal campsite using the leatherman wave knife we'd found yesterday.

The rain came in, and we cooked a lentil curry in the vestibule (very carefully, it's a big no-no after all). Our first marathon awaits us tomorrow.

Summary: