R&R (1/3)

January 18th

Lower Princhester Hut to SH94

Distance: 6km

Elevation: flat

Steps: 21,100

Today was another late, leisurely start. No one else showed up to stay in the hut with us, so we had all 6 beds to ourselves. Even the sandflies stayed mostly outside! So we slept in a bit, after having both woken up at 3am for some reason. (Vaughan noted later that by 3am we had both gotten 7 hours sleep, so that whole hikers-midnight-is-8pm-thing might have had something to do with it)

We only had a short walk down a farm road to the main highway today, but even that is not without its beauty.

It took us maybe 15 minutes for someone to pull over and give us a ride to Te Anau. He was from Queenstown, but in the area to help his son with some farm repairs. The farm was actually about 5km shy of Te Anau, but this generous man gave us a ride all the way in to town (with the excuse of picking up a nice sandwich for himself from a good cafe) before heading back out to his son's farm.

The rest of our day has pretty much been spent lazing around. Showers were very much in order, as was laundry. Both we and our clothes now smell much better (although Eliza's socks that went through the Longwoods and the flax swamp may never be the same); and even our sleeping bags are getting a good airing out.

Lunch was at a food truck (yes, they have those in Te Anau), Bao Now, and both of our stomachs were surprised and overjoyed to get so much food at once!

A couple of craft beers and a chicken salad for dinner back at the hotel, before going for an evening stroll on the lakefront to see some crested grebes.

Tomorrow (19th Jan) will be a true rest day, and we will be doing boring things like resupplying our food bag, so we may not write an update. The day after that (20th Jan) we're planning on doing a Doubtful Sound cruise, and then we'll hitch back to the trail point to get going again on the 21st.

One last thing to share. More than a few of you have been nearly gleefully warning us about the sandflies. Despite them trying to get to us, we haven't had too many bites yet, and those that Eliza has gotten (she being the bitey-insect magnet of the two of us) haven't been too too itchy. 

Until yesterday, that is, at Lower Princhester Hut, where she took a skinny-dip in the stream to wash off as much mud and grime as possible. Apparently two intrepid sandflies managed to find her derriere in the short time between getting out of the stream and getting into undies. So yeah, the anti-histamines have finally been broken into for something other than Vaughan's hayfever.