tramping new zealand

Some frustration yesterday with heavy rain early on, then driving some distance only to find a locked gate preventing car access to the hut through 10 km of forestry block, which was otherwise easy to get to. Then the main route up to the hut I needed to reach, starting my weeklong Eyre Mountain expedition, required permission, and the farmer wasn’t answering my call.

With rain still coming down, I decided my summer was over, and I might as well head north again to avoid the Easter crowds.

My knee hurt, my work clothes were wet, and I felt, let’s say, miserable.

I was pointed north and on my way to Kingston when the farmer rang back, and I arranged access through his property for the next day. He wasn’t exactly friendly, mentioning that 11 hunters were in the area over Easter, which wasn’t quite true. I thought I’d better pack my tent and sleeping mat.

That meant I finally got to look at the two huts on the edge of Lake Wakatipu, the first fairly easy to get to, the second more of a mission.

So today, after a second night in Lumsden, the day dawned surprisingly nice.

I packed eight days of food, my tent, and sleeping mat into my pack and took off up the 500 m climb to Mt Bee Bunkhouse.

A summer of climbing allowed me to power it out; on the other hand, good Internet connectivity meant I had a few phone calls to make and did some research on where I was actually gonna go.

At the hut were two older hunters and three young guys with their rifles from Tauranga who had just bought two young pig dogs on a South Island road trip. That’s the only people I saw for the next week.

We spoke about changing access issues in hunting areas and other hunting stories before they all took off in different directions to investigate the wildlife. When I say we, I mean us three older chaps, not the younger folk who apparently hadn’t noticed me despite my conversation with the group.

Lovely evening for a change, except for a huge wind.

And yeah, I was in my tent.