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Hello!
My fourth day on the track – after my terrible nights sleep, it was nice to know there were no crazy inclines awaiting me today.
Lots of people were up and out early as the vast majority were planning on taking the ferry out from Narcissus Hut.
As usual – I was content to go slow while the bulk of the hikers were gone.
Putting on the socks and shoes that morning was unkind. Cold and wet as they had no chance to warm up or even part way dry the afternoon before.

Another great day!
The camera was in my pack until I hit the open plains heading into Narcissus.

It doesn’t take long for the feet to warm up, even if they are wet. Still found lots of new mud puddles to wade in.

My feet (toes) were beginning to send messages to my brain. The sealskin socks that I had been wearing were now wet on the inside so it was like walking in little swimming pools. Plus they were starting to rub the tops of my toes.
I decided to take some time at the hut to change socks.

At the hut there were a heap of people. Its always a bit of a shock to go from solitude to crowds.
I dried my feet and put tape around the rubbed toes and pulled on the dry socks. I knew they wouldn’t be dry for long but was fairly confident that it would help stop the rubbing.
The hike down into Narcissus was 9kms. I planned to immediately take off again and do an extra 5kms to Echo Point to stay my last night.
Here was the ‘issue’
I was going to be walking out a whole day early. Since both Jeff and I don’t have mobile phones…. hmmmm

A lovely lady offered me her phone to call Jeff.
Unfortunately I could only leave a message – which went something like this: “Hello! This is Wife. Because I am so super, I am walking out Thursday, not Friday! See you soon!”
Because of dodgy reception it cut out after that.
Now to cross my fingers he SEE’S the message machine flashing.

It was around midday and I was heading back out. Peace again.

Having done this track with Fiona, I felt by taking 5kms off the total 17.5km around the lake, I was going to be a happier person tomorrow.
Its ‘undulating’
No mountains, but it winds in and out of the forest, up and down.

I like the first bit with the wide open stretch.

Still a totally happy camper 😀

It wasn’t long before the camera went away again. Its all a bit the same with the mottled light, mud and trees.
It was a tough 5kms! It took about three hours to reach Echo Point Hut!
It was more like an obstacle course than a track.
So many trees were down – clearly the rangers haven’t gotten to this part of the track. In some cases I had to take my pack off to get over or under trees, sometimes it required going a bit bush to get around then find the trail again (which isn’t actually always so straight forward!)
One huge tree obliterated the path and it took me some time to work out which direction to go to pick up the right trail again!
It certainly was an interesting afternoon!

Eventually I made it to the little rustic hut.
It sleeps about 8, with nice little camping spots around and big bins to store your packs and food in because of the night time marauders. (Furry food stealing inhabitants.)

There were only five of us staying in the hut – and a few outside camping.

We all hung out on the pier earlier when the sun was out and a couple of mad hikers jumped in the water!!! Brrrr

A fantastically peaceful spot.

The trees on the shoreline look like they have had rough lives!

The best thing about Echo Point Hut was the little coal burning fire!
Not much coal left in the bin, but we got a bit of a fire going and the cabin was oh so toasty!!

It was the best nights sleep on the whole track!

And guess who was up for sunrise??? Shocking.

I don’t see many of those 😀

Clearly we were in for another super day!
I didn’t bother with making a cup of tea – just some water and wolfed down a muesli bar, packed my gear back up and trotted off.
Back to tackling the last 12km

While there were still some trees down here and there, not quite as heavy going as the day before

Mostly on my mind was wondering if Jeff got my message or would I be forced to camp at Cynthia Bay for another night?

I walked out at 11.30am! Only three and a half hours, so better than I thought.

and

No Jeff.

Damn.

I bought a drink and used the change to call home. No answer.

Damn.

Left a message, then hung about ringing periodically and chatted to various people coming in on the boat. Some of my original hut-mates were most surprised to see me there ahead of them haha.

Finally at about 3.30pm when I was just getting ready to ring the cousins to investigate, Jeff turns up looking super harassed!!
My first message all he could hear was “I’m super garble garble garble Friday”
Sigh.
Got my other message at about 12pm and panic drove all the way down (3 and a half hours)

Mind you – he was also super impressed that I walked the whole track in five days and it was lovely having big hugs and catching up. We drove into Queenstown to grab something to eat then headed home while we filled in the weeks adventures to each other.
The shower that night was blissful and it was wonderful to sleep on a mattress that didn’t run away on me!
Pip was also a happy puddy cat and I got lots of loves and purrs and schmoozles.
Life is certainly great!

So – feels all a bit surreal now I am back to ‘normal’
Very glad I followed through with my idea. Sometimes its good to step out of your comfort zone just to see what you can do!
Thanks for following along
Cheers!

The new day dawned and it was another perfectly gorgeous day!
As usual I let most people bustle about and get on their way before I managed to get changed and have brekkie.

Todays hike is an 8.6km hike up to Pelion Gap and down into Kia Ora Hut.
The climb to Pelion Gap was about 300mt.
I was feeling it!!!

Pelion Gap is where you leave your packs to go mountain climbing if the mood and weather takes you. I had decided no side trips up mountains while I was on my own. I didn’t put in a day pack anyway.

I do love the darker forest paths where you have to navigate tree roots, mud puddles and rocks. Makes things nice and interesting.

I tell you – I was puffing and panting a bit!!

Finally, after many stops, I emerged out to the saddle between Mt Ossa and Pelion East.

The happy face of someone that knows its all downhill from here!
Easy now to step up the pace – esp on the smoother duckboards.

I was enjoying the sunshine and being surrounded by snow covered mountains.

It took quite some time to get down into Kia Ora Hut… always longer than what I think it is!

At last it came into view, so I sat down for some lunch and made some new plans.
There was a father and son already at the hut – everyone else was mountain climbing. And it was only 11.45am!

Seven hours is a LOT of time to kill when you didn’t have room to pack books or board games. (Assuming 7pm is an ok time to go to bed haha)
Another 9.6kms to Windy Ridge and the Bert Nichols Hut.
Hmmmm. No worries.
Back on with the pack and off I go.

The mud puddles were still in abundance:

A lot more evidence of the storms that went through the area too

Lots of shaded green tracks

After about an hour, I came out onto the old Du Cane Hut.
There is a nice big inviting platform in the sunshine – so time to give the shoulders a rest and soak up some vitamin D

It required a lot of willpower to get going again. So comfortable!

From here I put away the camera as it was pulling on my shoulders a lot – the extra kilo and a half begins to tell after a while.
I met some people at one of the waterfall junctions and climbed to the Du Cane Gap with them!
A LOT of people were at the Bert Nichols Hut. But its huge so plenty of room to find a spot to sleep.
I had managed to catch a cold (how annoying huh?) so sleep that night with a totally stuffed up nose was pretty thin. I think I went through half a roll of loo paper – most of it elegantly stuffed up my nose!!!

Someone kindly gave me some meds the next morning which really helped over the last couple of days! 🙂

Be back tomorrow to wrap up this adventure!!
Cheers!

Hello!
My second day started out in snow and finished in brilliant sunshine!

This section of the track is 16.8kms – it changes from open buttongrass plains to rocky forested areas.

I love these tracks – a bit of a challenge as you have to keep an eye on your feet, but its never boring!

And just when you’ve had enough of the dark forests, back out into the open you go!

Hi!!

It didn’t take me long to shed the gloves, coat and hat. The wind was brisk but not too annoying.

That point is the edge of Mt Oakleigh. By the end of the day I will be on the other side of that mountain looking back. Seems a long way off doesn’t it??

Enough of the easy plains walking… back to the climb up through the rocky forests again.

It’s incredibly peaceful walking through here. I did pass a few hikers but mostly I got to enjoy the solitude and the beautiful surrounds.

I did stop when I was looking up and about. Marvellous twisty trees.

And suddenly… daylight:

Back to the duckboards and a bit of wide open scenery and sunshine!

Its a bit hard to see the steepness of where the path was going but you might see its continuation on the right side…

I think I did a lot of garden planning and soap making planning in my head along this section.

Happy as a clam I am!

One thing that was very noticeable was the amount of trees down on the track since we were here last March… They must have had some epic storms. Apparently the rangers had been in recently to clear the track. I’ve not seen it like this in the last 3 years.

The mud was epic.

I met up with a group of Chinese students part way along the track. One of the girls was industriously cleaning off her shoes with wet wipes!!
Her idea was to clean her shoes before getting to the hut. I advised her not to bother. Firstly – nobody is going to care because everyone is muddy.
Secondly… she was going to find an awful lot more mud before the day was out!!

Can’t believe this was a rushing river that Fiona and I had to navigate when I was here with her April 2018!! So different.

My shoes got cleaned for a brief time

The narrow track around the mountain goes for so much longer than I remember.
Its hard to see in the photo, but a whole section of trees fell away taking part of the path with it. What was left to hike on really wasn’t much.

It falls away steeply so you had to really watch your footing.

(Looking back)

And back into the sunshine! Time to pull up a rock and get out the gourmet lunch!

Camembert cheese and a fresh apple.
I felt a bit posh!

Best views for lunch too!

It was time to prepare myself for the last slog up up and up before the gradual decent down into Pelion.

At that time of the hike, its much harder work.

The hut is a welcome sight – the big veranda was bathed in sunlight and everyone was taking advantage and hanging out socks, shoes, gaiters and other clothes along the balcony to dry off.

Told ya I’d be at the other side of Mt Oakleigh by days end!!

I got in around 2pm (about 5 and a half hours hiking) so plenty of time to change into my stylish PJ pants (complete with circus elephants) and lounge around in the sunshine on the tent platforms.
I might have been thinking of my husband a little bit…

All in all… a really fabulous day on the trail.
Time for some soup and a snack and try for a decent nights sleep!
Cheers!

Well – I am back in one piece! Yay. Believe it or not I walked out yesterday morning, so completing the full track in five days instead of seven!
My legs may never speak to me again!! 😀
Very nice to be home with Jeff and Pip, a warm fire and a bed with a mattress that doesn’t run away!!

THE START:

Well… 5am and I was up (hardest part of the whole adventure I might add)
Sunday morning – my lovely cousin Fiona was at the gate at 6am to drive me to Cradle!
We started at Dove Lake and pretty much hiked straight up to Marion’s Lookout – shorter but oh so steep!! That 17kg was weighing heavily – but slow and steady – got to the top.
In the first 45 minutes we had wind, sun, rain, hail and snow.
Good start!!

Before we got to Kitchen Hut at the base of Cradle we had to plow through a couple of big snowdrifts. Hard work. Managed not to fall over!

We had a bite to eat at Kitchen Hut before parting ways. Fiona was heading back to sensible normality and a warm home while I continued on out into the sleet.
It was all very peaceful… although I did have an irrational moment of wanting to shed some tears and chase her down and say “Take me home, this was a stupid idea”
I worked through it … haha

I was keeping quite warm, despite the weather. I didn’t get the camera out for ages – then I told myself to stop being lazy, as I wasn’t carrying that extra 1.5kgs for nothing!!

The traditional first stop on the Overland is Waterfall Valley Hut. I was hoping I would have enough energy in me to skip that hut and go through to Windermere. I was planning at that stage to do the whole hike in 6 days rather than 7 so Jeff could collect me on Friday.

Waterfall Valley is 10.7km – happily I met a ranger walking in the opposite direction not far out of Waterfall Valley hut. He told me it wasn’t even 12.30 and said I’d make it to Windermere no problems, which was another 7.8km down the track. That gave me the confidence to keep trundling on – knowing I had lots of time left.

I got bursts of sunshine but mostly sleet and snow.

Wet and muddy feet were always going to be a ‘thing’

By the way… I only took my fisheye lens… so the photos will be a bit odd and a few more goofy selfies than I would normally inflict upon you 🙂

The colours in the rain up there always make things look so much richer.

Trudging up the duckboards.

My bandanna, even though not a scarf, was handy to wrap around my face and ears.
I actually had very little on as I get so over heated when hiking. I had my two merino tops – the t-shirt over the long sleeved top. Then the rain jacket – which is a shell only for the rain, not a warmth thing. (Although it does help with the wind a bit)
I didn’t have thermal pants either – just my hiking pants and rain pants over the top. I had extra, of course, in my pack but never needed them.

By this time of the day I was getting pretty tired. Up waaaaaay before my normal hours and a lot of walking – I was certainly starting to feel it in my feet and shoulders.
I was still enjoying it but I was going to be rather happy to see that hut!

You can see the icy sleet on my pack. It wasn’t the greatest weather, but after walking through what Fiona and I did a year and a half back… it didn’t seem so bad really!

I got into Windermere at about 3.30 – which wasn’t bad going I thought. (I kept asking people what the time was during the hike so I could get a sense of my progress)
I was about done in. The hut was crowded (lots of families and people like me taking advantage of the last of the no fee starting time)
I think people were surprised to see me as most of them had spent the night at the previous hut together.
Luckily there was a spare bunk, so I put my gear up there, changed into my night clothes, wolfed down my sandwich that I didn’t eat at lunch, then put myself to bed at 5pm! (Much to the amusement of one of the fellows I met who was hiking with his sister – he mentioned it at the end of the hike how he was impressed I could just go right to sleep like that. I said I think I passed out haha)

A dusting of snow overnight made the morning just beautiful.
I had no intentions of jumping out of bed and racing around with the melee of people. So I kept warm in my sleeping bag while everyone else was breakfasting and packing.
The next leg was to Pelion. Its a 16.8km day – with a fair bit of ‘up’ towards the end – so people get out on the track madly early.
Eventually I got up and made a cup of tea and had a muesli bar for brekkie, chatted to people as they left.
I was the last one out. So peaceful!

Mind you – I say last one out, but it wasn’t yet 8.30am, so really… thats early enough for me!

Despite the snow, it wasn’t that cold. I did start with my gloves on and rain coat, but eventually as the day wore on, they all came off.

This is me. Happy in the wilderness!

Anyway – I have had a slow paced day at home, went out to a lovely lunch with Jeff – and now I am pretty tired so going to hit the hay again!
Will be back tomorrow with a continuation of my ‘Day Two’

Cheers!

Hi!!
Wow – yesterday’s twilight market went fabulously!
So many people bought soap!!
This makes me so happy – mostly because it means I can justify making a whole heap more!! I will concentrate on getting a lot of stock ready to sell for Christmas!
And guess what muffin forgot to take her camera?? I am so sad. The display looked beautiful! Sharon lent me her soap displaying stuff that she used at markets which was awesome.
Jeff sold some of his gorgeous necklaces – he’s been cutting and polishing rocks and wrapping them in wire. So he was pleased!
Taking away roughly the non-soap sales, I estimate I sold between $200 and $250 worth of soap!

So – what am I up to now?? I did promise to tell you today.

After being forced onto the scales at the hospital the other week I’ve been panic hiking! haha
While trotting around the river track the other week I decided that I would get my act together and do the Overland Track before the paid season starts. (This saves me $200)
So – I get another raised eyebrow ‘look’ from Jeff.
But he has been a star, helping out with my lists and pack so I am all mostly organised to head off tomorrow.
Fiona is being the ‘Cousin of the Year’ by coming to get me at 6am tomorrow and hike with me the first part of my day. Jeff is on night shift, so I had to bid him a fond farewell tonight 🙁
He is scheduled to collect me Friday.

I need to do the 7 days in 6 so got to squeeze in a double somewhere. I am hoping I can do that tomorrow but its a huge day. Anyway, will play by ear and see how it goes.
I have been very sensible and hired a PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) so if something goes completely pear shaped, I have a safety net.
The weather (which I have been watching) is going to be pretty good. Nothing close to what we’ve walked through before – but of course I am prepared for anything as things can change quick as wink up there!
I was completely prepared to pull out of the idea all together if a week of snow and blizzards was forecast. There is ‘confident’ and there is ‘stupid’
Mind you – going to miss our fire at night!

I’ve done some creative repacking today. Its a different kettle of fish having to carry the lot yourself. I have to have a tent in case of emergencies but I intend trying to get a spot in the huts. So I’ve been shaving off grams wherever I could. I am capable of carrying 18kgs but to be honest – I don’t want to.
I am a bit over 16kgs now with all but my last food that is in the fridge to put in tomorrow. The food will dwindle of course so things will get better over the week. The camera is the issue. 1.5kgs!! Thats with one short lens. Oh well. I am prepared to suck it up because I am NOT going without my camera!

So – I am massively excited to head out on a solo adventure! Only slightly anxious (just normal nerves) but I feel pretty confident, fit enough and strong enough. Having done it a few times already and knowing the track makes it less daunting than heading out into the unknown.

I haven’t told my parents yet – um… they are in China on a fabulous holiday so I didn’t want them to worry. I don’t think they are reading the blog while they are away 🙂
And if they do drop by – (Hi Mum and Dad!!) I am sure they will realise I have done some solid preparation for this and am being very sensible!
I am looking forward to seeing their photos as I am so jealous of them seeing the Great Wall and the Terracotta Army! How amazing!!

OK – I have to be up ridiculously early – like 5am
So I am off to bed.
Have a great week everyone and will hopefully be back in a week or so to regale you with some stories!
Cheers!

My new little patch of tulips is a delight. Its such a bit of bright random colour!

They will be over soon and other blossoms and spring flowers will take my attention, but for now, they are the prettiest things out there!

Got lots of things going on – put a BBQ together for Margies friend Chris this morning. Did some shopping and running about followed by a lap of the river track.

Got most things prepared for the twilight market which is on tomorrow night. I have my fingers crossed to sell some soap!

I’ve also been working hard at getting ready for an event on Sunday – but I will tell you about that on Saturday haha. Its consuming my mind and time a bit.

We got down to the coop tonight at dusk and finally did some wing clipping. Goodness… there was some flapping and squawking and general carrying on!! I’ve been wanting to do this for ages as I am sick of chasing chooks from where they are not supposed to be. I love them but I don’t want them digging up all my new plants and gardens.

I am also wrapping up the 10 day photo challenge that has now entered its 26th day!! 😀 Nothing new there… lucky my friend who does the scoring on his especially developed spreadsheets and I are not impatient. We just go with it.
We had 25 people join in – a few new faces this time too which was nice. Its all been tallied up, winners announced, extra stats being shared etc.
Its a nice little community and the photos that come in daily for it are so amazing.
We’ll take a break for a few months before thinking about setting up a new challenge. I think that one was the 11th one!

Things in the hothouse are going well… cucumber, zucchini, cos lettuce and one little marigold are all up

The snow peas and sweet peas in the outside gardens have also started popping up too!

And those big old plum trees have baby plums again!

Yum!

Thats it from me tonight!
Hope your week is going along well and you have some fantastic things planned for the weekend!
Cheers!

So… I find three chooks up by the house – scold them and get them to follow me back to their side of the yard.
Only to find this among the raspberries –

Eeek!
After a certain amount of ‘shooing’ I moved him (I think) up under the plum trees.

Cow and chooks all rather content so left them there to go share the good news with Jeff that we had a ‘slight problem’

Jeff had cleared a bit much near the fence where part of the tree has fallen on it… the cow took advantage.
Mind you… it was an impressive cross country event to get over the wires and through the timber to the raspberry patch!

We started by using one of our old gates to shore up the fence on the highway side as I wasn’t happy with the state of the wires and cows were poking their heads out a bit far for my liking.
Once that was secure, we both did synchronised shooing to get our bovine visitor back over with his friends.

(Who I am sure were a bit jealous as our grass is definitely greener!)
Then – more creative fencing.

So far so good – no cows in the yard today!

My niece Emma decided to call this one Lukus.
Lukus was still looking wistfully over to our side.
But he left us a present!
Organic fertiliser!!

Will be glad when this job is done and dusted!

Never a dull moment hey?
Hope your day involved less cow issues!!
Cheers!

Hello!!
I am keeping busy! Today spring is on and off again.
I put on the pack and did a double lap of the river track with 16kgs. Did ok too so I am feeling all positive about that. I did get rained on. Then sunned on… then hailed, then sun… etc. You get the picture.
Decided to attend to indoor activities for the rest of the day.

The day before yesterday I got to and finished digging up this patch to put the potatoes in.

Plenty of fat garden worms

The weeds slowed me up a bit but got there in the end

Its a smaller than usual patch… thinking about waiting a couple of weeks then putting in another patch in the duck yard garden. Just don’t really want to dig up that sticky clay, weed encrusted spot!!

Rocket happily going to seed again!

Garlic has a bit of yellow happening but overall I think they will be ok. Will give them another boost of something (worm wee?) soon.

Jeff had the fences down while working on the wood, so had to do a bit of chicken wrangling – they were having a lovely day extra free-ranging.

Yesterday I had another workshop – 4 people came along. We did battle the elements a bit which was a shame but still went well.

Anyway, these dishes won’t get done by themselves I suppose!
Going to put the fire on as well.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Cheers

Hello!
How is your week going? Nearly at the end of it again!
Yesterday I had a couple of people to do my workshop – a husband and wife.
They moved down from Queensland a short while ago and are getting the hang of a different climate! Lovely couple and it was a super afternoon.

Today Jeff and I did a lap of the river trail – this time I put my pack on and carried about 10kgs. It was no trouble so thats encouraging!!

This morning Sharon (soap lady) dropped by with a couple of buckets and we raided the garden 🙂
I was just sharing some of the excessive amounts of flowers we have as she is just starting to develop her area since they moved the goats and chooks out of the house yard haha!
Early next week I’ll be going up to visit her to raid her raspberry patch of new canes!

This afternoon after our walk, I got into the hothouse and planted a heap of seeds.
The ones I planted a week ago were cucumber, zucchini and cos lettuce. The cos is up and there are two tiny cucumber sprouts pushing their way up.
During the workshops I also planted sunflowers, basil and capsicum.
Today I planted about 6 different varieties of tomato, butternut pumpkin, golden nugget pumpkin, stevia, marigolds, eggplant, bee balm, cape gooseberry, plus more sunflowers which are a bit of an experiment in the toilet rolls.
Other veggies I will wait to direct sow when the weather is warmer.

I think I have started a bit later compared to other years but really – I don’t think its going to make a grand difference.

Oh – and today I industriously labelled everything – I didn’t last time and now I think I know the zucchini but I don’t quite remember which is which with the different cucumbers! Doh!
I did plant more apple cucumber and zucchini for a friend so maybe when they all sprout I can compare them and work it out!

Anyway – not sure the weather is going to be nice tomorrow – but I very much need to get the potatoes in!! I’ll be speed digging and prepping soon!

Hope you’ve had a lovely day
Cheers

Hello!!
I totally forgot to sort my photos and blog last night. I have no idea what I was doing. 😀
Anyway, today was a super spring day! Mostly blue skies. The wind was a bit chilly but a lot of my work today kept me pretty warm.
Actually I started the day with a B12 boost as I was beginning to slow up!

Thats not the ouch. The ouch is happening now- every time I am silly enough to stand up haha
Anyway, I really wanted to fill another raised bed – so I wheel-barrowed several loads over to tip in. (The way the yard is set up, I have to do a long round trip!!)
I then put more hay, bit of blood and bone and watered that in, then topped up the rest with the soil/compost.

Then I scavenged about and found enough strawberry plants to fill it! I am still trying to source new ones for the other deep raised bed.

Grow little strawberries – I am fanging for homemade strawberry ice cream again!

So… that job done, I moved on to the current wood mess and helped Jeff, who was cutting up everything in sight with the chainsaw.
I was stripping useful branches of the fluffy stuff and setting them aside and burning the rest.

No chance of lighting a match in the wind I thought, so I grabbed a big chunk of glowing embers from the house fire…

Eventually it all took off nicely!

In other garden news, the seedlings that we planted at the workshop look pathetic… lol. They’ll perk up. Most have little new leaves showing through

Pretty rapt to see the cos lettuce seedlings emerging already!

And the photos that I was going to share yesterday… I’ll share now.
Lots of pretty spring flowers starting to really make things more cheerful about here!

Lovely colour everywhere!
Anyway, going to take my aching self to bed – although first I have to extract Pip from his warm towel!! 🙁 I feel so mean!
Have a wonderful day!
Cheers!