From Havelock we had planned to combine the Pelorus River track and the Richond Alpine Range track into one MEGA track and attempt to do it in 8 days, although just to be on the safe side we took food for 10-11 days, in case of any rain that meant we would have to sit and wait out for any rivers to drop. Needless to say it weighed quite a bit. We did all our shopping for this section in the local 4 Square, which we were expecting to cost an arm and a leg, but surprisingly didnt.
Okay, im not going to lie. This section was pretty tough. Obviously it is doable, but by the end we felt relieved to be finishing the track, more so than any other track we had previously done. The things that made it tough were the daily, steep ups and downs, also there was a lot of rock hopping along the Richmond track which meant that to avoid injury you had to concentrate on your foot placement all day long. Mentally this became quite draining, especially after the 8 days.
From the beginning of the Pelorus River track we were into the Mt Richmond Forest Park, from here on we began to see a marked change in the local flora. We saw a departure of the ferns, pungas, supplejacks and other bushy plants we were used to from the North Island and a welcome arrival of beech forests, which is a lot easier to walk though and has a really nice feel. We spent the first 3 days of this trip on this track following the beautiful, turquoise Pelorus River which we whole heartily recommed swimming in! It's so cold and fresh and pure and delicious. The remaining 4 days were spent on the Richmond Range Alpine track which was predominantly above the bush line, hopping from stone to stone. The best bit of this whole section: summiting Mount Rintoul as every cloud in the sky disappeared. What views! Some of the best in the whole of New Zealand arguably.
Another thing that was new and exciting about this section was this marked the beginning our time staying mainly in huts, not including the occaisional hut in North Island we stayed in, from now on we were in many many of them. With this came a new style of trail life, many huts have fireplaces meaning that instead of cous cous we could now start bringing pasta and rice etc on the trails because we could now cook it easily, without burning tonnes of meths. However the most exciting thing this meant is we could now bake! Flour, although heavy and only really recommended carrying on shorter sections, is so versitile. Not only does it give you something to do in the evenings but can significantly supplement any meal. We've since made flat breads, apple crumbles, dumplings, pain au chocolate all with reasonable ease and little fancy ingredients.
As i said finishing this section was very relieving, however arriving into St. Arnaud was such a downer. There is next to nothing in St. Arnaud. When ALL you want to do is finally eat a ton of food on arrival, there is only a one store (also the gas station) and it's very very expensive. It actually hurt parting with that much money for that little food. There is a though a cheap DOC campsite that has awesome aweomse views over Lake Rotoiti. Very nice. Apparently the hardest bit of Te Araroa is now behind us. That feels good.
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Day 89 - Bluemoon BBH Havelock to Pelorus Bridge DoC Campsite
After an enormous breakfast curtosy of our new friend Johanna we started walking with heavy packs, full of food for 8 days, along the road. It was a pretty boring walk along the road, listening to music. The two Kiwi sisters we met along the Queen Charlotte track, just happen to drive past and they offered us a lift, but we had to decline. It was nice to have someone stop and say hello though! The Pelorus Bridge was an ok camp site but it was cool to see how much the scenery had changed from the coast. The trees are now Beech and the forest is more temperate.
Up early and walked along the road, with some EPIC views of the valley behind. The road followed the Pelorus river and it was beautifully clear. The clearest water we have ever seen. The begining of the track was a nice tramp to Emerald Pools where we had lunch. The water was beautiful and cool. We took the opportunity to make a few videos for Knotty boy, but DM broke the no.1 rule and dropped his soap. Luckily he has a spare! There was a deep part to the river so we jumped off the cliffs and did a few flips as well. The walk to the first of our huts was pretty cool, following the river the whole way. Captains Hut was really nice and had a lot of character. It even had some flour, so Anders and DM took the liberty to bake flat bread. One spicy and one with mixed herbs. Before the sun went down we had swam in the Pelorus River and again jumped off the cliff into the clearest water ever! GREAT DAY! Day 91 - Captains Hut to Browning Hut
The day started out much the same as every other day, except now we were in huts again! we love huts! The track was steep - it doesnt become known as the hardest section of the Te Araroa without it being difficult, having said that though the morning walk up to Middy Hut (which we were supposed to do yesterday) was fairly mild for what we had in store for us. Elevensies at Middy Hut just to sign the hut book and check out where other Te Araroa trampers were going. The walk from Middy Hut to Roebuck was less than easy. The trail information suggested a 5 hour time, but we are coming to realise that these are somewhat subjective - normally we are about 1/3 quicker but recently we've been bang on (so longer than we expected). This track was another section that was timed appropriately for us with lots of challenging, steep sidling along thin paths with steep falls. Needless to say we didnt like it. It exhausted us and caused considerable anger. Slipping again on a rock, stretching out our knees, occassional expletives echoed through the beech forests and up the river valley. Lunch at Roebuck Hut allowed us some recovery time. The next track didnt offer any sympathy,again it took longer than expected battling our way through steep, slippery forest which, for now, was blocking out the sun. Finally Totara Sadle (only 30mins from the hut - we had reevaluated our target destination to Browning from Hackett) but it was still a steep downhill. Upon reaching the door to the hut we were well and truely exhausted, can it really get harder than this? Is it only this bad due to the weather? Well apparently from other trampers its pretty hard all the time. But man this was probably the worst day on the trail so far. And to top it off, one of the worst huts of the trail. Everything was wet, there was no wood for the fire, there were rats in the ceiling, there were mosquitos (sandflies we are used to now, not mozzies). What a dump. Still, its a roof.
Day 92 - Browning Hut to Slaty Hut
This was the day. The hard day. 900m in one straight climb. Apparently this is one of the hardest days of the Te Araroa, so, understandably, it took us a while to get moving. Lucky we didnt make it to Hackett yesterday so we had a little warm up section by way of a 1 hour walk to Hackett Hut. Everything still wet from yesterdays rain, gators can only do so much when your boots are falling apart, our feet got soaked, again. Hackett Hut was awesome though, and as a bonus we met two cool dudes there. 900m up. Started with river hopping with a wet track and slippery roots and rocks. Then up through the beech forest for a grueling couple of hours. We didnt take many breaks since it had started to rain a little, although 2 flat, no... flat-ter sections gave our thighs and arses a little respite. For some reason the wasps were angered and they took a liking to Anders' legs and stung him a couple times making the climb even worse, luckily though we were approaching the bushline and therefore Starveall Hut and LUNCHTIME! After glimpsing a couple views of the sea when the clouds infrequently cleared a hole we took off towards Slaty hut. Guess what? it was up. Up and covered by clouds. Alpine climbing is much more exciting and therefore fun, and when its fun and exciting it makes for easy walking. It barely felt like we had left Starevall Hut when we arrived at Slaty Hut. Another cool Hut with ample wood and lots of forest to get more should you need any.
It was cloudy and cold. We were aprehensive that we spent all this time and effort getting all the way up this mountain and then we wouldnt even see anything. All the way to Old Man Hut we were in cloud not seeing any views except for track by our feet. Old Man Hut had two turn offs and upon reaching the first we made a decision to not eat lunch and not to stop at the hut but to carry on going and eat a little extra scroggin and some energy bars. This was mostly due to the 30min walk just to get to it, we didnt want to add an hour walk to our day. Lucky things got better and not worse! We climbed up Little Rintoul and the clouds started to clear off. We could see quite a ways. We were happy and walking better now. Then, the clouds vanished! SHWEET!! we now faced the climb to the top with amazing views, warm weather and perfect visibility! It was a long climb and quite technically challenging but it wasnt overly hard. There is also a huge reward summiting such an exposed mountain and thats demonstrated by the photos. We spent an hour and a half at the top. Eating lunch, taking photos and videos, we even wrote a note for other hikers - hopefully it will brighten their day. The climb down was pretty cool actually. Felt like we were on a beach at first, really mellow descent but then, of course, it got steep. Really steep. But it was cool, kinda like scree-surfing, just hard on the knees. Then a short section through trees and we came to the hut which we spotted from the summit. What fun.Day 94 - Rintoul Hut to Mid Wairoa Hut
Up the ridge through the trees for the first of three climbs today (and the only peak - Purple Top) brought us to the bushline where we climbed a little bit more and sidled across to a pass just to the East of Purple Top. Then we climbed down again. Back into the trees and made our way to a lake and Tarn Hut for lunch. Really nothing incredibly exciting happened, and the alpine scenery is starting to get a bit same-y but thats only when you cant see anything cause of the beech trees. Tarn Hut wasnt spectacular either, the lake was alright, the weather was nice. Ate lunch and then realised that we had run out of toilet paper. Hmmm. Newspaper will have to do. The afternoon was pretty similar to the morning. Pretty standard walk until the last climb down to Mid Wairoa Hut. Now things got interesting. It was steep. Probably the steepest - longest descent we've had to do. It hurts the knees and it doesnt stop. Still its downhill so its not aerobically challenging its just harder on the joints, Still not sure whether I prefer up or down. Another day done we dropped our stuff and went straight for the river. Rocks to jump off again! YES! We LOVE doing this. But the water is FREEZING! not sure how I can understate how cold the water is here but it didnt stop us going for it. Got the blood pumping. Plus Mid Wairoa Hut has an open fireplace!!! oh yeah! nice big fire to warm the hut.
Although it bucketed down during the night, it wasnt as wet as we had thought. The river had only risen a couple centimeters as well. We were concerned at first - there are lots of river crossings in the next section up to Top Wairoa Hut. In fact we follow the river all the way up! The track itself though is difficult. Its steep and slow going. The river crossings are fun but take a lot of time if you dont want to get soaking wet boots. There are amazing waterfalls and swimming pools up the track. Considering how difficult it was I think that we managed it without too much trouble. We generally agree that it was difficult and given the right circumstances dangerous but we think that it was still a fun and enjoyable track - if only for the waterfalls. Top Wairoa Hut was awesome as well, another open fireplace. Over lunch it started raining again and we werent too keen on the idea of climbing the next mountain in poor visibility and rain since the information states that the markers are difficult to see in clear weather. So we decided to wait till 2pm to see what happens. 2pm came along and we went for it. The rain had, for the most part, stopped and it was bright still so we figured we would be ok. It was wet though, warm, but wet. Once on alpine terrain we were at home again on the shale and scree and we started getting back into our stride. Cruising over the ridge we could just make out the next pole in time to prevent walking off the side of the mountain and getting lost somewhere. Down into more beech forest we climbed down and down until we could see from under the clouds! There was Hunters Hut. Miles away. Damn. It looks alot further away when you can see mountains in the way! still knowing that we were in sight made things so much more bearable and we continued on without any hiccups. The last 15 minutes up to the hut however were steep and we were exhausted. Hunters Hut is a fantastic hut with great views and a very very good stove. Make sure you stay here!Day 96 - Hunters Hut to Red Hills Hut
Eventually the dreaded time came when we have to leave the comfort of this great hut. Luckily though it was only a 4 hour walk to Porters Hut and the weather had lightened up a little. On top of better weather the landscapes were awesome! Loads of martian-esc terrain although it reminded us more of Australia than Mars. Walking across yet another boulder field we came to another river crossing, well not so much a river as a stream, but still eventful. Anders went first. As with all crossings, we try and scope a way we can get across without getting our feet wet (walking is much more pleasant with dry feet and our boots have lost all the waterproofness they never had), Anders found a path and threw himself at it. His right foot (the forward foot) slipped to the left throwing his 80-some kilos backwards over the foot high waterfall and into the pool below, his fall broken neatly by his Truist 65ltr Eagle Creek backpack. Absolutely devastating for Anders, HILARIOUS for Landey and Dm! ok well we were just glad that he didnt smash his face in, and it did suck that he got soaked in freezing water but the sun had come up a little so it wasnt the end of the world. At Porters we stooped through the midget doorway and checked out the tiny hut. Another open fireplace, a hut book dating back to 1986, old axes and a weird little rain gauge. I have to say that this hut has the most character of all the huts we've been to. We pigged out a little on lunch (tomorrow we would be in St. Arnaud!) and headed out for Red Hills Hut. This section was said to be longer than Hunters to Porters and it was. Although it was beautiful it was dull and hot and tiring. Time dragged on until we eventually made it over the last saddle and could see the hut in the distance. Only thing is a marsh stood in our way. Well its not mapped as a marsh but you walk through knee high grass which obscures the ground which little swampy streams haphazardly wind their way through. Red Hills Hut has a brand new feel to it and an amazing porch but it lacks a fireplace and a sink. Tomorrow, St. Arnaud!!
Today had few thrills. We treated ourselves to the remaining chocolate in our porridge and walked down the 4x4 track to the carpark and then took a right and walked along the road shoulder into St. Arnaud. The road was a welcome change with a long, well graded section with even ground. We didnt have to concentrate hard about where the next foot was going and could zone out and even listen to a little music. No rain again, always nice. Made it into town easily for lunch and b-lined it straight for the chippy. It was shut. WHAT! only open on the weekends! ok then, looks like we arent going to be treating ourselves, head to the store. Which one? Theres only one. Ok found it. WHAT ON EARTH! everything is priced triple its value. Monopolys are horrible. As I said all in all an uneventful day. The views from the DoC campsite though are amazing and there are some pretty big eels in the lake, they are protected though, cant go around eating these ones - they take 90 years to mature in these frigid waters!
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