When we got to the hire place and they saw our packs they knew immediately we were on the Te Araroa trail. We’ve been following in the footsteps of 3 hikers for over a month now, and it turns out we’d missed one of them – the infamous Dirk – by about 15mins! We’d been hearing about him everywhere we’d been. We had to jump in the water and chase him down!
Well, it seems that paddling with massive wooden paddles in a chunky boat is much slower than a slick streamlined sea kayak with double paddles … Especially when you stop every 5 mins to film another angle, or backtrack to re-take a shot ;) There was also a bit of a wild goose chase ( quite literally ) … We thought he was a swan.. and after ‘furiously paddling’ to get an up close shot he turned out to be the ugly gooseling instead.
Anyway, it was lots of fun, and thinking we’d missed our hiker compadre we pottered up and down tributaries merrily in the sunshine, shouting at wildlife, and singing pirate songs.
When we finally rocked up at the beach and clambered ‘gracefully’ out, we spied a hiker, socks-off under the tree… We’d got him! It was The Dirk! :D We couldn’t believe we’d caught him up. ( But then we realised he’d actually been waiting about an hour for us! Haha :o – Sorry Dirk! ).
Very impressed that such a young lad, only 18! Is taking on such a big challenge on the other side of the planet in-between finishing high school and going to university. Our caps are most definetly doth’d in your general direction Dirk. Hope to meet up on the trail again soon :) You can follow Dirk’s adventures on his blog – 
After composing myself, and starting to wonder if I was a complete wuss, I busied myself with the usual Hut Book stalking. Mentally ticking off all the other Te Araroa hikers we are chasing: Tengu & Clod, Roger Moir, Alex & Shalane & David, Lucy & Rebekah ( lots of girls this year ), and Paul Edwards from Auckland… Tick. All alive. Excellent. 
We got ‘im! This chap has been signing into hut books all over the country and finally we bagged him. Some people go into the mountains to go ‘peak bagging’, we go ‘Te Araroa Tramper Bagging’. We saw his name first in the gnarly Tararuas, ( A mean old section with a reputation for eating trampers ) as he nipped through just before the cyclone came… And then he popped up in a hut going the other way on the Richmond Alpine Route, just before our I’ll fated dash for Top Wairoa hut in the rain…. Hang on a minute, there’s a pattern of doom emerging here I just realized… ;) 
“Not freakishly-big, but at the far end of reasonably-normal-big.”
Two jolly hikers we keep bumping into all over the country, are Michael and Elna. A constant source of hot tips, and pro route info, they’re ‘flip-floppin’ along the Te Araroa hiking sections at a time. Nice way to do it, especially if you get to go home for a shower.
We have friends coming out to join us for a couple of weeks soon, they arrive early next month and I wanted to make sure we have a good section lined up for them :) Elna & Michael have been hiking across the South Island this summer and have completed most of the route ahead, so I was checking with them about the ‘impressiveness’ of certain sections that might coincide with Ollie & Nico’s visit.
So, We’re on our way to a very special detour. To see the mountain that bares Cookie’s name, Mt. Cook! It’s sat in the heart of the section we had to jump past to meet up with Ollie and Nico, so in a sense we’re back to fill in some gaps, and take in the best bits.
We’re in Twizel?
Anders, DM and Landey = the Tasty Trekkers!
At the end of the Timaru River we decided to hitch into Lake Hawea to avoid being under canvas when this snow storm hit. We secretly hoped that if someone picked us up, maybe, just maybe they’d be going to Wanaka and we’d be eating 
