March 6th
Wanaka (km2620) – Fern Burn Hut (km2643.5)
Mileage: 14.6mi/23.5km
I didn’t want to leave this morning as it was raining and looked like it might go on all day. But it was time to be moving on. Bertram stayed behind, trying to heal his messed-up legs. Poor guy. 
Wanaka in the background 
The famous Wanaka lone water tree. In Florida, we have bijillions of these. They are called mangroves and cypress.
We set off around 10 am, taking it easy as we continued the stroll around Lake Wanaka. It was another easy multi-use path, but without a single mountain bike on this rainy day. 
After 14 kms, we came to Glendhu Bay and turned off onto the Motatapu Track. It goes through a spectacular high country farm station owned by Shania Twain, which cost her about 21 million. Her company was required to build this track and the 3 huts as part of the foreigner land purchase approval. Thanks Shania!
The track started out pretty flat in beech forest, then started climbing steeply. It was slow going in the rain, being how slippery it was. I would have liked to reach the second hut this day but it was clear that the first hut was in order. That was good, since the Fern Burn hut was nice with great views and not too crowded. Sarah, TA walker that we saw crossing the Ahiriri River was there, along with a couple section hikers. Another great night in a hut, dry and warm, away from the rain. One could get used to this. 
