By Elliot
Our friends whose wedding we went to in Toronto, Katie and Tom, came to New Zealand to spend two weeks with us.
Ruth and I joked that we would be crashing their honeymoon. Little did we know how true that would be. The area around Queenstown/Wanaka/Te Anau is in full tourist season in February, and even though half of all buildings seem to be accommodation of some kind, there is a lack of vacancy. Us being on trail and Katie and Tom being busy with work and planning their wedding, we sort of winged it with accommodation. In practice, that meant we shared the same room in many of our way-less-than-honeymoon quality lodgings.
We also went on some nice hut-to-hut hikes with them. It was different from our usual tramps: we had a shuttle that dropped us off at the trailhead and a shuttle picking us up on the other side on a set date. This meant that there was never any thought of walking further and getting through the hike faster. Any time saved would have meant more time waiting for a shuttle at the parking lot. It was way more relaxed as a result, and getting to a hut early could be enjoyed without somehow feeling guilty that we hadn’t done enough that day.
One of the great joys of the trip was sharing our hard earned TA knowledge with our friends. When we shopped for food before our multi-day backcountry hike, our friends copied everything we bought. They allowed us to talk them through our theory and strategy of selecting food for multiple days. They were suitably impressed.
We are also glad to now have witnesses to us being having been on TA for the past few months. In addition to our demonstrating our expertise, we ran into a few people we had met on trail. Maeve the Australian whom we met right before the Timber Trail on the North Island, we ran into in Queenstown. Leo, the Israeli we met on New Year’s Eve in the Tararuas, we ran into as we started walking on the Hump Ridge track. And when Katie and Tom drove us to the TA section trailhead where we parted ways, there were three TA Southbounders sitting there, all of whom we knew. If any of you have doubts about our adventures and whether they really happened, ask Katie and Tom.
Mostly, we spent two weeks with great friends, great conversations, and more laughs than I have had in a very long time. It’s been a wonderful vacation, and Ruth and I are recharged and excited to tackle a little bit more TA trail (a few hundred kilometres) before our big adventure comes to an end.
