Hi,
Definitely possible but not a lot of fun. I started walking the trail last May planning to complete the trail fairly quickly (not as quick as you though) and I found after the first week I wasn't having a lot of fun, I was walking sunrise to sunset everyday. Anyway I decided to not complete the trail in the time I had and took it a slower and ended up enjoying myself a lot more. I'm planning to head back to finish up in April/May this year.
Are you planning to go N->S or S->N?
Tips
- You'll need to carry a tent to do it in that short of a time, some days will either be too short or too long as you'll be double or triple hutting everyday.
- You'll need to post food packs to yourself (to hostels/hotels preferably) - going that fast you won't be able to stop in towns, post offices aren't open outside of business hours so getting packages can be tricky.
- Make sure all your gear is perfect before you leave (shoes etc), once you're on the trail there isn't anywhere decent to replace anything apart from maybe Collie. I would have killed for a new set of insoles a couple of weeks into the walk, the previous 2 months stomping around Nepal has trashed my shoes and I didn't replace them before the Bib.
- Hang your food - If you're staying at shelters, hang your food overnight, there are lot of little critters that will try to get into your food (trying involves eating through tents, bags etc). If the shelter has plastic tubs then you that instead.
- Get a SPOT Tracker/EPRIB if you're going solo, I didn't but wish I did after the number of snakes I saw. I walked in May and went days without seeing anyone quite often, if I had gotten bitten ... it wouldn't have been good
- Mobile Coverage is surprisingly good (Optus and Telstra) in the southern sections of the trail, typically if you can see water/coast you'll get a signal, other places if you get up high enough you'll be good too. If you're in the forest chances are you'll get nothing though.
- Blackwood Camp is the highlight of the trail, it's officially closed as the bridge to get there burnt down but you can ford the river about 1km past where the bridge was (If you're heading south->north). Only go if your Nav is decent though, a lot of markers are missing.
I made an itinerary that shows the cumulative distances between shelters, towns etc. It should help with the planning and walk itself.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FzfRWFOmuiuOydPRh0INu4YpvInNQROnbiGcXS3KbUg Download a copy and you can chance the 'Days' between towns to calculate average distances etc between stops.
Have a great time and let me know how it goes.