It took two weeks for my legs to stop cramping and seizing in the middle of the night. My hiker hunger has only just passed, though the cravings for fresh fruit and veg still continues, and we finally said the last of our goodbyes just a few days ago.
We had two weeks to kill between finishing the hike and picking up our car. We got 'stuck' in Invercargill for the first chunk of that; catching up with other hikers in the cinema, going for coffee, and using countless megabites of cafe internet usage to upload pictures and spread the news that we'd finally finished our venture.
The lull of what-to-do-next syndrome was taxing. Mostly, we didn't want to leave our friends; most of whom were from parts of the world that we wouldn't be in a position to visit for a very long time. A second contributing factor to the ongoing lack of drive and will to move on was monetary. Putting ourselves up in a city camping ground, and spoiling ourselves with celebratory all-you-can-eat chinese and the largest of breakfasts we could find had put us somewhat over budget (though we still felt underfed). But when we eventually wrote our destination of Te Anau on our empty pizza box, we found ourselves making hasty progress to another cafe destination where we set to planning our two week drive to the airport.
More breakfasts, a nacho pie (yes, they have nacho pies in Te Anau), and a few screwed up leaflets later, we'd hitchhiked with Renee to a nearby trail where we hoped to rekindle our love for hiking New Zealand trails. The Hollyford was a couple hours drive. We managed it in one hitch to the start of the track where a well maintained swing bridge crossed another of those crystal clear rivers unique to the fiordlands. We hiked to the first hut and settled in with a few other hikers for the evening where we enjoyed our 'luxury' foods that we only had to carry for the one day.
We skipped the next hut but made it no further than the third. We spent a full day reading infront of the gorgeous lake under the sun and headed back out the following morning. Stopping for one last night in the first hut again, we were met by a group of Welsh Army boys - little did I know, I was a lot more determined, and a lot more hard-working than them all.
We hitched back from the Hollyford to Te Anau and took a converted van to Queenstown to pick up our car. I slept for most of the journey before waking in busy Queenstown realising I'd been sleeping in a young lads bed in the back of his van - not sure it was my wisest of moves.
Setting up in an Air B and B for a few nights, we re-walked some of the TA trail in Queenstown and finally, filled the back of our hire car up with the heaviest of foods we could afford (though we were still cooking on a camping stove so we suddenly realised we still had to stick to pastas and easy cooks.)
We drove to Milford Sound through the mountain tunnel (a must see if in the Fiords), we picked up Ollie and his two friends from Invercargill and travelled the coast to Dunedin to see the penguins (didn't see any). We travelled back up via Renee's aunts house in Christchurch where we stayed and caught sunsets over Diamond Harbour. We picked up our 'missing' parcel from Snow Denn Lodge in Methven that was full of sweets and chocolate from Donna and Mark for my birthday. We traversed back to the West to see the incredible glaciers and Mount Cook. We saw almost everything we possibly could have seen in those two weeks before reaching Auckland.
New Zealand had become ours. Our home. We wanted to see every nook and every mountain. We collected things to take home with us so we might just remember what the pebbles were like on one beach or what the food was like in a particular town. It had become the place that Luke and I had grown even closer and stronger. It was, and always will be, one of the most beautifully ruthless places I know, and I will never forget its lessons.
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