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Arthurs Pass to Raikaia River

Te Araroa - days 96 to 98

By Nature Is Calling

February 27^th, 2020

Day 96 - Bailey Spur to Hamilton Hut

Start: @ km 2180.5
End: @ km 2198.5
Hiked: 18 km

We had quite a leisurely morning. The cafe opened at 8am so we packed up and headed over for breakfast: banana cake, passion fruit yo-yos, date scones, cheese scones, orange juice, and coffees. We saw Su at the cafe and joined him at his table. Su’s English is quite limited, but we are still making progress in communication.

We didn’t end up leaving the cafe until 10am, which is when we began our attempt for a hitch (just asking people as they were heading to their cars). We looked across the street and saw Alex trying to hitch as well. He was there first, so we knew we had to wait until he caught a ride before we could try our luck by the road.

Alex eventually got a ride and we waited another two hours until a nice Canadian girl stopped to pick us up. Su had rolled up about 5 minutes earlier and lucky for him got to jump on in the Canadian’s van as well.

We didn’t know much about the day’s trail as the trail notes were quite vague, but let us tell ya, the walk was so wonderful. We met a cheerful group of about ten 60+ year olds who were doing a section of the trail as a day hike and loving life. They told us that our hike ahead was going to be great. They were right.

First of all, the soft forest floor was amazing. Our joints were rejoicing. Second of all, the views were absolutely stunning: a backdrop of mountains (some with snow), huge boulders (that Leah would’ve loved to climb up), rocky cliffs, crystal clear rivers, and beautiful blue skies. Oh, and did we mention that the trail was nicely marked?!

The trail soon took us along the river and the markers to follow soon became cairns. We found a peaceful snack spot beside the river and were overjoyed when we could enjoy our snack without being swarmed by sandflies.

Su caught up with us after snack and we hiked the last 7km together, at one point passing an old historic hut that we were glad to have a look at, yet happy to not sleep in. Then it was two swing bridges and we were at the hut.

The hut was filled with familiar faces and a couple of new ones as well. It was a cute, old and cosy hut. Mathias got a splinter from the old wood floor which ended up being quite an ordeal. He tried to take it out with tweezers while using his headlamp to see (it was darkish at this point). The light attracted the sandflies that had unfortunately made their presence know within the hut, and they were biting his exposed hands and feet. Eventually he hid in his sleeping bag liner where he could work in a sandfly free zone and was able to get the splinter out before passing out for the night.

Day 97 - Hamilton Hut to Lake Coleridge

Start: @ km 2198.5
End: @ km 2216.5
Hiked: 18 km

The mood in the hut was super chill. People were reading in bed, making coffee and relaxing at the tables. Everyone was pretty much just slow moving. There were not too many kilometers to cover today, so we could be.

The path was not as exciting as yesterday, but nice enough for the beginning section. It followed the river for a long portion, giving us a soothing soundtrack. We passed the pinnacles- cool rock formations that we could see in the distance, before stopping to have snack at a nice little spot by the river.

After snack we somehow lost the path; walking through tall boggy grassland sprinkled with spikey bushes and leading us to test (and further develop) our bush whacking skills. We eventually found an algae-rich creek which we walked down (for longer than would be preferred), ultimately leading us back to the trail. Yay!

We arrived at the campground and were pleasantly surprised. The campground did not have good reviews, but it was totally fine; just a big patch of flat grass, a picnic table and a pretty clean toilet. I mean, what else do you need? We pitched our tent close to the hill for wind protection. We enjoyed dinner and chats at the picnic table. Oh, and the view was pleasant, which became even better when the last sunlight of the day was illuminating the mountain tops.

Side note: Mathias, feeling motivated walked an extra couple of kms to catch some views of lake Coleridge. Go Mathias!

Day 98 - Lake Coleridge to Rakaia River

Start: @ km 2216.5
End: @ ~ km 2237
Hiked: 20.5 km
Skipped: ~ 9 km
Hitched: ~ 110 km in a wild circle ;-)

We got up early and had the usual coffee and oats. Everyone left the campsite around the same time to start our long day of roadwalking, all caused by the river Rakaia in front of us that is one of three zones that the Te Araroa trust declared to be too dangerous and thus we have partly go and partly hitch/shuttle around them. Too dangerous in this case means that some people do cross the river successfully, but the river bed is very wide and should the river rise suddenly, we wouldn’t be able to get out in time. Some people have lost their lives this way. So we’re happy to go around, but weren’t too happy to walk the road with our feet hurting.

After 20km we had enough and tried hitching with the few cars that passed. A nice fisherman with his dog stopped for us and told us he could take us at least to a main road. That sounded good to us, so we hopped in. Ollie, the dog in the front on Mathias lap and Leah in the back. The drive took a while and we ended up at a main road, but a lot further away from Methven, the town we wanted to get to.

Luckily it didn’t take too long to get a second hitch. This time by a guy who was working and just picked up a compressor somewhere and was on his way back to ChCh (that’s how the locals call Christchurch, it seems). He was an interesting guy, originally from the UK, living in NZ for a while and had been to the NZ Antarctica station multiple times. One time for 13 months, but then also for short times every summer. It felt like meeting a famous person. He was nice and drove a little out of his way to get us to a road that headed to Methven. Google maps showed us that it was still 45 min by car to get there.

The traffic on this road was low, and the cars passing us didn’t want to stop, we waited for at least half an hour, but then luckily a girl stopped and even more lucky, she was on her way to Methven and took us all the way with her. She also had an interesting job. She was basically traveling the world as an alpaca-sheerer: New Zealand, Australia, Europe... back and forth, depending on the seasons.

Once we got into town we checked into our fancy home for the night: a cute pod with a double bed and headed into town for a Thai dinner and restocking. After this we socialized with the other hikers in town in the blue pub over beer, ginger beer and garlic bread.