Day 32 – Twizel to Lake Pukaki
From Wanaka I managed an afternoon hitch to Twizel, where my bounce box was waiting for me. This small town has no proper post shop, and the clerk at the hunting and fishing shop that serves in place of one grumped at me. “You’re lucky it didn’t get sent back, I’m only supposed to keep it ten days.”*
Next stop was the local DoC office for further info about the nearby route. There was a real keen worker there who has been marking the trail through the Tekapo region. The result is one of the best-marked sections of Te Araroa I have yet seen, including noticeable sign boards at many road crossings that specifically mention the long trail. The irony is that this area is also one of the most straightforward sections of the walk, consisting primarily of lake edges and hydroelectricity canals.
Once I’d finished quizzing the DoC staffer, I sat outside with my maps and notes, recently retrieved from my bounce box. The news wasn’t great. I have about a day’s walk to the north to reach Tekapo, but past Tekapo is a remote nine day section with no convenient exit. This is unfortunate because I’m planning a rendezvous with Blair on March 2, to hike the Routeburn track over our birthdays. So I have only six days of hiking, and I have to end somewhere hitchable. On the other side, there is a two or three day section between the Ahuriri River and Lake Ohau that I skipped because I needed permissions I hadn’t called ahead for. I had thought to ignore it, since I don’t like having to ring up landowners, but now it’s back on the table as one of the few things I can get done in six days.
I spent a while pondering and planning, and soon realized it was getting late. I didn’t want to stay in town, so I started walking. There is an “informal campground” only 12 km north of Twizel on the shore of Lake Pukaki, so I set out for that.
The trail was easy, a very well-marked trek following a fenceline across paddocks. But I find my emotional state greatly affects my walking, and today I was feeling lost and uncertain because I wasn’t sure where I’d hike tomorrow. So my feet dragged and I felt exhausted. Fortunately the trail wasn’t long.
Approaching Lake Pukaki from the south, the trail interects the bones of the Pukaki River. Once quite powerful, this river has been sucked completely dry by the hydro dam at the bottom of the lake. Now it’s a forty meter dormant bed of shingle and boulders, giving off the impression that at any moment the river could leap back to life in a roaring flood. But even when Meridian Energy opens the flood gates for an annual canoe run (or in five-year heavy rains), the water level rises only glacially, giving plenty of time for a surprised tramper to get out of the way.
Soon I was at the campground, a piney spit of land populated with a handful of RVs and a car-with-tent. Most were arrayed along the northern edge, which affords a great view of Aoraki / Mt. Cook when it’s not covered in cloud, as it was tonight. I made a dinner and hung my hammock atop a small rise, pondering my route as I fell asleep.
*For those interested, I later found out: NZ Post will hold a Poste Restante package for two months by default, and three if you ask them. But registered packages only get held ten days. So don’t mail your bounce box registered.