Day 40: Brest Hill Camp to Lake Hawea - Wanaka

15km, 3.5 hours.

Thankfully sunrise was at 630am so we didn't have to get up too early and we could just watch it from the warmth of our sleeping bags in our tents.

It was beautiful. Before we even could see the sun, Mt Cook and Mt Aspiring were already seeing the sun with the tops of them lit up. Before the sun started hitting all the other mountains across the Alps and then finally us.

I couldn't believe the place i was in. The most amusing part of it all however was looking over at Conny who had taken off her tent fly, and was just sitting straight up in her 1man tent. It looked like she was driving a Fiat on a mountain top. We all laughed and laughed. If you're starting your day in fits of laughter you're doing pretty well!

We pack up and start the climb down. None of us had any water as we hadn't planned on camping so we couldn't even cook any oats or coffee for breakfast. I was starving so i desperately wanted to get to Pakarihi Hut so i could eat.

T

he downhill ridge climb from Brest Hill to Lake Hawea is rough! It's steep and then there is a switchback (quite possibly the only one in NZ I've seen) that goes on for eternity. I heard some sheep and look over and see an entire flock climbing the cliff face like mountain goats. I'd never seen sheep do that ever so I stood and watched them in awe for a while.

I may have trail ran down this as my pack was light and I knew that in less than 10km i had access to a cafe!

The walk along the lakeside track to Hawea while beautiful. Again we struck another 30 degree hot sunny bluebird day, making the lake so blue and clear look very very appealing. I ran more of this track to get me to food faster.

Arriving at the one cafe/store in Hawea that was open. It was comical here. I ordered breakfast but they were out of avos because they're not in season... What?! Got a chocolate milkshake, a delicious homemade raspberry white choc muffin with butter, 1 litre of orange juice that i thought would last the day but was gone in 5 minutes and of course a coffee or 2.

Not once did any plates get cleared from any table. Not even all the plates from the people before who were at our table. The waiter just kept bringing us our food and we had to deal with a gazillion plates. The four of us were so exciting for breakfast only for 3 of us to order and be fine; Conny went up to order hers and they said 'breakfasts over'. Poor Conny!! We're having mediocre tiny portion of bacon and eggs and she is only able to have a chicken burger.

We now had to get to Wanaka so it was time to hitch hike again. We headed out to the main road and found a petrol station and split up into twos. David and I went and stood on the exit driveway and got picked up within 5 mins by Emma in her van who took us right into Wanaka. Easy as!

The 6 of us (Laura, Conny David, Iván, Sam & I) had already booked a cabin at the YHA so it was nice to just be able to go straight to our accomm rather than arriving in a town and trying to figure out where to stay.

Us girls headed straight for the lake for a swim. It was so warm and so refreshing. We finally felt like we were on holidays!

As per usual the first day in town is house work day - laundry first! Then resupply second. I went by a boutique bottle shop and picked up a lovely can of cider so i could at least celebrate another section being complete while washing my clothes!

Tomorrow is a zero day! I can't tell you how happy I am about it. My last day off was in Hanmer Springs almost 3 weeks ago. I totally deserve this day off!

Ren x