tramping new zealand

This had to be one of the most enjoyable tramping days of the summer.

An excellent sleep after yesterday’s efforts. My body felt recharged.

My batteries were fully recharged as well, because, after I left two massive power banks in my car, a couple arrived last night and let me use theirs.

Champions!

I decided to leave Red Dynamo Hut for my return and made my way straight to Archie‘s Hut in the Aurum Basin.

Nice to walk well above the river, which provided great views of the landscape and its goats. It was easy up until the creek fork, at which point the speargrass entered the scene, puncturing my equilibrium.

However, it only took about two hours to get to the hut on this cloudless, warm day.

I sat outside until I realised my skin was burning and went indoors. The three bunks were hard, but I sat there anyway and read a book about Lance Armstrong and his drugs/hormones/etc. Taking them to get himself and his team competitive with the other teams who were also being drug-assisted.

Having been out in the pristine New Zealand environment for five weeks now, you might think I was blasé, but I just needed a break from exercise and planning my future for an hour.

It is a grand basin, with a few goats in residence, unperturbed by my presence. The mountains rise super steeply on one side and are grassy on the other, but Mt Aurum, 2245 m, was certainly imposing.

I felt no need to climb it; where I was was sufficient.

On my way back, I saw three paragliders doing their thing. They seemed a long way from nowhere, and I couldn’t tell what their jumping-off point had been.

Clearly, perfect conditions.

I realised how deeply the valley descended on my return. It seemed a lot easier travel, but I was still well spiked by the speargrass.

Red Dynamo was interesting as it had been someone’s home away from home before they aged and passed away. Still with a personal touch, although the hut itself was becoming decrepit.

I could now see the incredible vision of the engineers, with the water race taking water from the creek for a few kilometres, then letting it drop 60 m to power the hydroelectric turbines.

That was all envisioned back in 1886. And it all worked according to plan, the problem was moving the non-gold bearing rock and the general operation of the mine was just too expensive to make it worthwhile once the richest quartz was exhausted.

Well, I was exhausted similarly, but I did want to visit the site of the crushing battery at Bullendale.

I thought I might have a huge day tomorrow, and then I could return to the schoolhouse camping ground in the evening.