TA Day 23: Thursday 9 January 2025

Ahuriri River - Lake Ohau Track, south of dam gates

We continued up the hill for almost 10 km this morning before we decided to stop for breakfast. We were almost up the top, apparently hidden in the high grass as a hiker almost passed us without seeing us. When we continued down the hill, we met two women who recognized us from Big Hill, so from the day we passed Macetown, wow!

The trail continued down a cozy forest, and once we were out of it we could see Lake Ohau in the distance. Big and azure blue, very pretty.

We also saw grey clouds in several directions, and we weren't sure when or if they would come our way, so we tried to hurry.

We followed a nice 4WD-track all the way down to the road. Then it was road walk for some time. A few kms into the road walk, a car suddenly stopped. It was Lulu's mum and sister! So fun to meet again. They were going to Lake Ohau Lodge, a place a lot of people recommended to us, but we never went there - for several reasons. One was because we wanted the day into Twizel to be short, and two was because it seemed complicated to book. We couldn't book or even find the prizes online, and making bookings over the phone in NZ is very difficult because it is pretty much impossible to hear what they are saying (yes, we've tried a few times...).

We hurried on, and tried to get to a toilet as soon as possible. But the rain caught us just before we got there and we threw our rain gear on and kept walking. Once we reached the toilets we were glad to hide from the rain for some time, and when we started to walk again we could do so without rain gear.

But now our feet started to be really tired, and even though we now continued on a gravel path for bikes and walkers, it was still tough on our tired feet. But we pushed on, and managed to find a tent spot along the side of the path, still within the conservation area. From here it was difficult to get down to the water because there were so many thorns covering the way between the lake and the path, but after some time, Kim managed to fetch some water while Lukas pitched the tent.

Today's:

Distance: 31.88 km

Ascent: 789m

Descent: 1198 m

Tent nights: 15/23

Weather: Sunny and cloudy, with some rain in the afternoon