tramping new zealand

A beautiful summer day, or another in a line of them.

Not windy, which is a change.

Glancing at the map on my phone, Anderson‘s Hut didn’t seem so far away, so I slept in and had a leisurely pack up. I wrote something.

Suddenly, it was 9 am in time to get moving, but it took another 30 minutes for that to be achieved.

I scooted over to the old musterer‘s hut, now decrepit, just about ready to fall over. Still, the roof is intact, parts of the walls, and one canvas bunk that I didn’t volunteer to test for stability.

Instead, it was on with my pack and what turned out to be a longer trudge than anticipated. Many would question the folly of so much time on a four-wheel-drive track that totalled around 10 hours for the day. I’ve had a whole summer to prepare for this, including the Hakatere Little Adventure last week.

After I finished the Heaphy Track in a few weeks, I should be able to say my Achilles tendon has healed and I can say this four-wheel-drive track was just a phase of my rehabilitation.

But there was some visual interest in the stacked river terraces where I could occasionally see the gravel exposed in its verticality.

The lower hills, around 1300 m high, were rounded and grassed, but the 1700 to 2000 m mountains were sharp with a lot of gravel on show. Parts reminded me of the Clarence River Valley in Marlborough.

Eventually, with the heat cranked up, I continued to listen to Cheryl Strayed’s book Wild, which popularised the Pacific Crest Trail and started the experienced hikers from the USA to try out Te Araroa in New Zealand.

Yeah, much to their surprise, it’s different.

Wild is about the Pacific Crest Trail, of course, but it’s also about how alone time can help you sort your life out. Doing something hard can change your mindset, in her case from a fairly self-destructive lifestyle.

It’s been five nights since I spoke with anyone, and once again, four nights in a row I’ve had a hut to myself. In all probability, tomorrow will continue.

Anyway, time to eat my dehydrated meal in my sleeping bag. The sun has gone down, although it’s still light, and I’ll be enjoying getting horizontal.

Tomorrow will be a day trip to Esk Biv up the river. It is easier to climb the long ridge up to Point 1702 from here rather than from Esk Biv the following day, where it is steeper.