Rain and Pain Go Away

A friend and I hiked out that night and were caught by another cold evening and morning. Luckily, we were climbing up to another saddle and as we walked past bush line, the sun hit our backs and the day warmed up. Up and over the saddle, we then climbed down a river valley that opened up into a much bigger river. We scrambled down the side and plowed straight into the river thinking it was like any other. About halfway through, my legs began to feel weak and I felt very unstable as I looked at the rest of the river I still had to cross. Clutching my brand new camera and quickly sneaking my ipod into a higher pocket, I kept moving. As we finished crossing, we looked at the bank on the otherside and realized that the only way out of the river banks was to climb straight up a wall of loose rock. After some cursing, slipping, and utter disbelief that this was the trail, we made it up and kept moving. The wind was relentless and I pictured myself trying to set up my tent in it later. It would not be easy. Luckily, by the end of our day, we got to a private hut that wasn't on our maps and it was open! We ran inside and were finally protected from the wind that had bashed us all day. I was even more thankful when it began to rain later that night. We slept in the next morning but reluctantly left in the rain. We were climbing up to another saddle and I began to panic, thinking of how the last time I had walked up to a saddle in the rain hadn't gone so well. We ran into another friend on the way up and I felt much safer, knowing the three of us could take this on together. My panic was all for naught once we got to the top and the wind had died down and it was actually warm. We ran down the otherside and the rain slowly let up fir the sun to come out. That afternoon the trail turned into a tough bush tramp. We were in and out of rivers, climbing steep banks, and trying to follow the track as much as possible. The day capped off with an immense climb like I've never experienced on any other trail. We were walking straight up for about 2 kilometers that went in and out of forest sections to being completely exposed on the side of a cliff. There were more than a few occasions where I felt very unsafe but I made it to the hut just as it began to rain again and settled in for the night. The next day we hiked up to a summit and spent the first part of the day on an exposed ridge that had incredible views of the southern alps. The track down was much like the climb up to the hut had been and my legs were shaky by the time we reached the road at the bottom and got into town. We met up with a bunch of friends in town who were planning a little reroute of the trail in order to hike some more desirable sections of trail. We joined them and left the next day to climb Cascade saddle. We got just under the saddle and set up camp for the night. We were completely frozen, just under alpine zone but we got a bit of sleep. I woke up to about seven Keas tramping about our campsite. Keas are the most intelligent bird in the world and are extremely pesky because they like to figure out how things work, often ruining shoes, tents, food bags, or anything they can get their beaks on. I jumped out if my tent to fight them off but realized they had already gotten to the handle of my trekking pole and had ripped most of the foam off. Seemingly satisfied, they left everything else alone. We had a beautiful day going up and over the saddle and I got to experience my first glaciers in New Zealand. It was an absolutely spectacular day ended by getting to a warm hut and turning in. About 30 minutes after we had snuggled in for the evening, a man came into the bunk room looking for the "fit hikers." I was one of the only ones still awake so I got our of bed to see what the commotion was. A group of nine elderly hikers had made it about 30 minutes back before dropping their packs on the trail and venturing to the hut without them. Now they were looking for people to go back and get them. The group looked extremely exhausted and one man had a busted eye and scraped up most of his face. I got ready to venture our but was relieved of my trip when I heard others had already headed out for the abandoned packs. The man was being checked out by someone more medically qualified than my expired Wilderness First Responder, so I went back to bed. The next day we headed out into the rain and had a quick day to the next hut where the hut warden had just shot a deer and gave us part of the shoulder to cook up on the stove. It tasted incredible and it was such a treat to have fresh meat on trail. The rain only got worse as the evening went on and then the wind began to come in. Sheets of rain were being blown sideways and the rivers were beginning to swell. We spent the next day hiding out from the weather in the hut and were astounded by the multiplying waterfalls coming down from the ridge. It was still raining the next day when we went to leave the hut but we were running out of food and had to keep moving. We bid farewell to our friends we had made during our day in the hut and headed out. We got to two extremely swollen waterfall crossings that I would have never attempted if I had been alone. We made it through together and kept tramping down the river that was now the trail. I got moving a bit fast and suddenly my feet were coming out from underneath me and I came down hard on my hip and shoulder. The only thing I could do was roll over and laugh, hoping the pain would go away. I popped back up and a friend mentioned something about not breaking my ipod that I had just realized was in the pocket of the hip I had fallen on. It was too wet to check it then but I would find out later I had cracked half the screen with my embarrassing slip. We kept moving though I was falling a bit behind everyone trying to ignore the heat I felt in my hip. I got to a flatter section and made the move to try to catch up when I kicked a rock with the side of my foot and saw my small toe flip around backwards. I bit my lip but kept moving, taking deep breathes trying to pretend I hadn't just broken my toe. Suddenly it was nice to be walking in the ice cold water that slowly numbed my feet and took the pain away. We got to a car park and begged some people for a ride to our next track. Luckily we got there with incredible speed and began hiking up to the saddle to spend the night. The rain had eased up for a bit but everything was still pretty wet. The track was incredible, we got to walk through waterfalls and caves, climb up rivers, and pop up over ridges to find secret lakes and valleys hidden by the landscape. When we got to the saddle, we were all soaked to the bone and shuffled into the leaking emergency shelter for the night. Everything was still pretty wet the next morning but we packed up and moved on. We got back into a town and will be getting back on the Te Araroa from here to finish out the last bit of the hike. Kilometer 2782

The End is Near, Maybe Sooner Than You Think

We made the long hitch back to the trail incredibly fast and ran into a large group of our friends that had been a few days behind. The now nine of us hiked out and crammed in a small hut for the evening to escape the sand flies. The next day we made it about 8km before getting to a really nice hut and calling it quits for the day. We caught up on sleep and lots of necessary eating. I got up and headed out early the next morning and spent most of the day alone until we got to a hot spring right off trail. It was small, swarming with sandflies, and reading of sulfur but the hot water felt like heaven to our aching muscles. The group of us made it to a hut and set up for the night, expecting rain. I ran outside early in the morning to feel the sprinkles hit the ground. As I stood out in dark valley, I heard a kiwi bird call out clear as day. Until then we had only been playing recordings off of a phone. I relished in this private moment. The next day was overcast and misty for most of the day. We hiked over a saddle and back down to the valley but not before passing a dead cow right in our water source. I hiked into the evening alone that night and when I realized I had gotten off trail, I found a flat spot and set up camp. As I slept, I heard the rustle of an animal close by. I woke up and found a pesky Weka trying to steal my shoes. I scared him off and started to drift back to sleep when the bird gave off one of the loudest calls I've heard from a bird. Startled myself, I sat up a bit in my tent as I heard galloping nearby. Before I could even think, half of my tent was being crushed in around me and I felt the soft brush of hooves against my shins. Suddenly my tent popped back up and the galloping disappeared. Unasured, I layed awake gripping my pocket knife for another hour. I got into town the next morning and decided to hitch into Christchurch to see the city. I was stunned by the amount of damage the earthquake had done and how much of it hadn't been rebuilt yet. I took a few rest days off there before getting back to the trail and having to play catch up. My friends were all ahead so I went on the move to try and speed up. I found a group I had met earlier on my first night out and decided to stick with them through a dangerous river section that is inadvisable to cross. We made it across in a breeze and kept moving. Unfortunately, all my efforts to catch up were for naught because I was getting lost at almost every junction and suddenly coming up behind the group I had left ahead of earlier. We loving accepted the group name "don't follow Goosebumps." We woke up together at a hut but I left a little before everyone else to try and get to Stag saddle (the highest point on the TA) to take some pictures. As I ventured up alone, the wind grew increasingly stronger, completely knocking me over at times. It wasn't until the rain started that I thought about turning back to the hut. A huge gust of wind came through and knocked me into a creek, where I got up and hiked back for about five minutes before I got another bout of confidence and headed back up the saddle. The wind and rain only got worse and it grew immensely colder as I climbed. The rain felt like icicles whipping my skin. I was afraid. I turned back to see if the group had followed me up or if they had followed their senses and stayed put at the hut. I was incredibly relieved to see them climbing up after me but I was unable to wait for them due to the cold. I made it to the saddle and tried to take my camera out for some pictures but my hands could no longer move. I decided to head down as soon as possible. I ran down as much as I could until I no longer saw any trail markers. It wasn't getting any warmer. I stopped and looked around, I didn't see any trail markers or my friends. I couldn't get out my GPS to find the trail because my hands wouldn't move and the only bit of warmth I felt was the hot blood rushing out of my bare feet. I started to panic. Within an hour I would be hypothermic and I wouldn't be able to recover unless I got off the ridge. I stumbled around for another 15 minutes before I saw a person on the horizon and realized my mistake. I ran back to the trail and followed them down until we could all stop long enough to talk without the wind whipping around. As we sat, the sun came out and the clouds cleared, making way for an incredibly gorgeous day. We laughed that no one would believe what we had just been through. We made it down to a hut where we warmed up and ran into some friends. My only thought was what a difference a little bit of sunshine can do. The next day we jumped up and got into town after one of our coldest mornings on trail. Headed back out tonight, hoping the cold front is over. 2385 kilometers

I Would Walk 2000 Kilometers and I Will Walk a Thousand More

We left St. Arnaud the next morning and hiked an easy walking path down to a hut. There were about six people inside the 24 person hut so our group made 11 and we set up for the evening. I took a nap and when I awoke the hut was buzzing. A group of 12 plus two guides had come in and the place was getting crowded. We shifted around each other and were settling in when a man came to the door and announced that he had 24 high schoolers on their way to the hut and only tents enough for half of them. We jumped at the chance to get out of the chaos and set up our tents outside just as the rain began to start up again. It rained all night long and the field began to flood underneath us. The next morning we walked up the trail that had become a river overnight. We cut the day short and dried our gear out at the next hut. We had a large climb the next morning to get up to a saddle with some of the most magnificent views I have seen so far. The whole day felt like I was back on the Pacific Crest trail, tramping through the Sierra. That night we made it to blue lake, rumored to be the clearest lake in NZ. Unfortunately, after the rain, the lake wasn't clear at all. We had another big climb up to a saddle the next day and hiked down a river into the valley on the otherside. I got to camp early and took a dip in the cold river to combat the intense sun. The next day we finished walking out of the valley and decided to do some night hiking to save on sun exposure. We got to a hut late that night and slept outside in order to not wake up the rest of the people inside. Around 6:00am the next morning, I felt four tiny pricks on my face. When I opened my eyes we were all swarming with sand flies, more than I had ever seen. We scrambled inside to sleep a bit more away from the pests. We got up a bit later and hiked out to a road that would take us to our next resupply point. A friend I was hiking with knew a guy in a town nearby who had recently triple crowned (hiked all 3 long distance trails on the US) so we hitch hiked 230km to the beach town of Kaikoura. He fed us tons of veggies from his garden and let us camp outside. This morning we went down to the ocean, where he went diving for crayfish and abalone for dinner this evening. We'll take another day off here and then head back to the trail for a seven day section. And at over 2/3rds of the way done! 2057km.

Down with the Sickness

We woke up at a campsite near the lodge and hung around for the day before pushing on. It was a gorgeous hike and we ended the day by running into a good friend and chasing off the Weka birds. The next day was the superbowl so our friend ran forward to catch it at a lodge. We hung around making a slow, long day. As we ate lunch and checked out our maps, we noticed a small trail that would take us up and over a summit instead of staying on the trail. We decided to be adventurous and take the "shortcut" that would cut off a whopping 1.5km. As we started the "trail" it became more and more obscure until it dissappeared completely. Using our GPS we stuck to where the trail would have been but it had not been traveled for at least ten years. We were scrapping through sharp gorse and a wall of trees and sticks, sometimes resorting to crawling on our hands and knees. Once the gorse ended we were met with a blockade of thick vines that covered an unstable ground of rocks and leaves. I busted through a trekking pole, snapping it in half. Close to the end, I hung from a tree to take a step down when the step blew out from underneath me and I began to fall. As my body kept tumbling, all I could think was "stop, stop, STOP." Suddenly, fifteen feet down the slope, mt feet dug in and I caught traction. I quickly did a check in of my limbs. Nothing broken. Lots of scrapes, lots of blood, but I was okay. I got up and we kept moving. Three hours and 2.5km later, we made it back to the nice, well graded trail. Slightly kicking ourselves thinking we could have made it at least 15km in the time we took to take the "shortcut". Battered and bloody, we took a swim in the ocean before moving on. We got to a side trail and hiked up to catch the sunset before getting to a campsite where we ran back into our friend. We made dinner and chatted about the day before deciding to night hike a bit more to see the stars and the glow worms that lined the trail. As we hiked into the night, my friend broke his shoe to put a cherry on top of our incredibly tough day. The next morning, we got into town and I started to feel sick. A cold had been drifting through the group and after pushing too hard, it got to me. I took the rest of the day off and slept, hoping to feel better in the morning. I did not and little did I know, things were only going to get worse. We hiked out of town and I felt like I was breathing fire. My lungs and my throat burned with every, extremely labored, breathe. I got to a hut and gave up for the day. The next morning I still couldn't breathe so I stayed at the hut till some other friends came along. I left with them and took things extremely slow. I didn't make it to camp until after nine that night. I wasn't getting any better and hiking wasn't helping. I decided the next day I would take a side trail and get off for some rest. We took sometime and saw a movie before deciding to do another side trail. We wanted to summit Mt. Richmond but were not super clear on how to do it. Luckily, our first hitch used to live right across the river from the mountain and told us everything we needed to know. We got there and crossed the river before climbing up to a hut just below the summit. It was fogged out so we waited till the next morning when it cleared up. We hiked up the scree slope and 20 minutes from the summit a massive cloud came in and covered any view we would hope to get. We got to the top as our gear started to dew up in the clouds and the wind whipped us around. We headed back down and ran down the mountain trying to beat the wall of rain that we saw coming in. Luckily, we beat it and got a hitch back down to the trail where we met up with the rest of the group and decided to wait out the rain in a hostel. We head out tomorrow to a hut where we will stay until the weather passes. Having a wonderful hiker reunion! 1940km