Zero Day!

Oof, what an incredible week!  Well, after three days of beach and four days of woods and farms, I've hitched a long ways into Te Anau, tourism capital of the fiordlands. The town is pretty decent, especially considering that it's at 600% of its off-season capacity. Lots of cafes and outdoors stores, and a handful of very patient locals.

I took a bus/boat combo in to see Milford Sound, which is a quite spectacular fiord. I'd love to grab a sea kayak and paddle around some of the other areas in the 3 million acre national park. The 4000 ft peaks here plunge straight into 180 ft deep water. The mountain faces are so rocky and steep that they're subject to the occasional "tree avalanche."  Under windy or rainy conditions, a trees roots will give way, and its fall will wipe out everything below it - like a mudslide without mud. 

All in all, the Te Araroa's been reasonably kind so far. The long days on the beach toughened up my feet first thing, and the terrain's steadily increased in difficulty. I've only had one difficult spot as far as navigation goes; shoulder high tussock doesn't mix well with stomach high trail markers. (Or, for that matter, with finding good footing.)  One of my knees seems to be balking at tough inclines and declines; hopefully, it'll get the hang of things soon. Regardless, I'm planning to split up hikes longer than 25km for at least the next 7-10 days. I really, really enjoyed the days that I could finish early and have some down time in camp. That may have to change eventually, but I don't mind having more R&R for now.