Day 23: Tramping in trampers paradise
When in Rome, act like the romans. Or so they say. And so we did.
With this part of the country being considered to be perfect for taking a walk, it should be foolish of us not going for said walk.
There are quite a few tracks out here, of which Routeburn, Greenstone and Caples are the most well known. These are long tracks, ranging from 2 to 4 full days of walking and with lengths of up to 100km. That is really lovely, but not for us.
We only have one day, so we chose to walk the Lake Rere Loop.
In order to get to the track we need to get in the car outside of the lodge and drive to the right. That road is unsealed and less maintained. It is 12km long and has 3 (actually 4) places where a small river crosses the road. Crosses over the road. These are called fords, and driving through those is only recommended for 4×4’s.
We asked around a little and found out that we should be fine, even though out little rental car is tiny by any NZ standard.
As long as the weather stayed dry, everything would be golden!
The track around Lake Rere is truly wonderful with views of Lake Wakatipu and the surrounding mountains around every corner. Only an hour in, the drizzle started and got worse to just full on rain right around the time we reached Lake Rere. That is when we had the choice: go back 2 hours or go on for another 3. We decided 2 would be better than 3, and turned around.
Yes, we got really wet. Again. Not all equipment like last time though, but shoes, socks and pant all had to be dried. Most unfortunate, the views also went away as quickly as the clouds rolled in: at a certain point we couldn’t see the coast of the lake anymore…
A few hours after this bad weather, it all cleared and we are now (8pm) looking at blue skies dotted with a few white clouds and mostly sunshine. I guess that is the way things go around here!
Tomorrow we are leaving early for Te Anau as there are lots and lots of activities over there. It should take us 4 hours. Let’s hope we don’t bring the rains with us!
