Well worth the effort,we spent 18 days cruising round this 7-10 day circuit in June.Few people,fewer sandflies,the bigger concerns are rivers & how to shoulder a heavy pack until you eat it down to size.Brian & Kat,Wanaka,overtook us in their little rubber kayaks,as did the Racehorses,a determined group of 3 trampers from Dunedin,who`d seen our names in the hut books & were determined to `run us down`.They did,on the last day.A mate was going to join us at Big Bay but got waylaid,so airdropped some treats instead-chocolate,salarmi & (drum roll),two foot-long Subways,fresh outa Queenstown.That hit the spot.A far cry from Grave & Talbot,who over a 100 years ago,biked from Oamaru to Milford,met the steamer to get their two,60 lb packs & went exploring for several weeks.And repeated the dose yearly.Thanks to Yarmoss for your route info.We got there finally.The Demon Trail is over-rated,we thought,& the Black Swamp in the Pyke wasn`t too bad.