Day 27 – Wanaka to Turihuka Conservation Area
From where I left off in Albert Town, there are a few sections of trail that are still incomplete, so I had a little bit of hitching to do. My luck today was great. After reaching the edge of town, I waited only fifteen minutes before getting picked up by a young farm kid, maybe seventeen years old. The inside of his truck looked like the Glitter Mafia had ordered a car bombing. This made me happy, because I had just received an email from an old friend who was obsessed with glitter, and had been thinking of her as I stood by the roadside. From the back of the car, a terrier-foxhound mix named Flame came forward and licked my arm. When I said he had a sweet dog, the kid replied “aw, he’s useless,” but in a voice that leaked affection for the mutt.
My next ride, hitching from Lake Hawea Township to get closer to the trailhead, was an old man with an utterly incomprehensible accent. He was on his way home and dropped me less than a kilometer away, but every little bit helps.
My third and final ride of the day was one of those crazy coincidences that make me love hitchhiking. I got picked up by a woman named Tarn, in a van with a nice road bike in back. It turns out Tarn is planning to do a thru-hike on Te Araroa next year, with a group of friends. This might not be so remarkable along the Appalachian Trail, but since Te Araroa is not yet complete, the number of thru hikers annually seems to average two or three. So we had a great time talking trails and biking and juggling and yurt living, and she went far out of her way to drop me at the Timaru River trailhead.
The official Te Araroa route goes up the Timaru River and crosses a saddle to reach the Ahuriri River. Talking to the other trampers on the Motatapu track, the name of the Dingle Burn came up repeatedly, with the implication that it was quite scenic. So I decided I would bypass the Timaru and hike the Dingle Burn instead. The road from the Timaru trailhead to Turihuka Conservation Area, a tiny patch of trees at the base of Dingle Burn, skirts Lake Hawea for many kilometers. It was a gorgeous day and I greatly enjoyed the views, even stopping to take a swim.
Lake Hawea is dammed to provide hydroelectric power, and when the dam was installed the lake grew substantially. This left Dingleburn Station at the north end without land access in or out. For a while the owner of the station brought goods and men up the lake in an old whaling boat, through all sorts of weather. This got old fast, and he brought in a team of excavators to dynamite a path along the bluffs. This was the route I walked today. Blast-scarred cliffs towered above me, and off the other side of the unmetalled road was a sheer drop into icy water.
I was having a great time, but the path wore on longer than I thought, and I was glad when I arrived at Turihuka, shortly before dusk. The trees here were scrawny and the sky clear, so I opted to cowboy camp again. Sandflies swarmed me throughout dinner and even after I scrunched up in my sleeping bag they started landing on my face. In a moment of invention spawned by necessity, I pulled out my hammock and draped the netting portion over my face. Voila! Instant bug bivy. The only animal to disturb me tonight would be the possum who woke me at midnight, grunting inquisitively as he approached my pack. I never saw him but hurled invectives about invasive species at him until he went away.