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Boyle Village to Arthurs Pass

Te Araroa - days 89 to 95

By Nature Is Calling

February 24^th, 2020

Day 89 - Boyle Village to Hope Kiwi Hut

Start: @ km 2060.5
End: @ km 2086
Hiked: 25.5 km

Waking up to the realization that you have just been given a job at your top choice school is pretty darn awesome. Waking up to the realization that your partner will in fact, after many years, be moving to Zurich and has landed herself a job is also a pretty awesome feeling. So yeah, we woke up feeling pretty good.

We grabbed breakfast at Mumbles Cafe (our third appearance) where we inhaled the biggest date scone we had ever seen. Then it was time to try our luck with getting a hitch back to Boyle Village, but not before looking up the weather forecast for the next few days and taking screenshots (we would soon be leaving ‘reception land’). Luck was on our side. We only waited about 10 minutes before Luke, the Parks and Rec employee from California told us to hop on in. Leah has the luxury of laying down on the bed in the old camper-esque van. Luke was a super chill, nice guy who drove us all the way to our starting point.

After 1.5 km of road walking the trail went through grassland and right to one of our two bigger river crossings of the day. We knew that we would have wet shoes on this day anyway, so we just started crossing. The water went up to our knees/thighs and on this hot day we didn’t mind the cool down.

The welcomed river crossing cool down was later followed by boggy bullshit; lots of mud. Our feet were already wet, but mud up to our shins was not ideal. We made it through this section and Mathias found the perfect snack spot: windy, on a rock and sandfly free(ish).

Quick rant about sandflies: they suuuck!

Less quick rant about sandflies: They are awful and have been getting progressively worse on the South Island. They seem to be more aggressive, even biting us as we are moving, and have at the very least quadrupled in number. We have so many bites. The best protection we have found is to cover up and keep moving, but when it is so hot, it’s hard to put on your long sleeve thermals. For those of you who have not had the introduction to sandflies, they are like little mosquitos, but their itchy bites last longer. End of rant... for now.

After snack, we followed the trail alongside a huge deer enclosure, which ironically did not have any deer inside. Then it was a series of river crossings, in and out of forests, and through some more boggy bullshit until crossing the Hope River on a swing bridge.

When we got to the hut we were greeted by Chris, a very friendly Kiwi who welcomed us into the hut. We also met Jan, a nice German who shared his carmel-chocolate bar (thank you Jan) with everyone. Later Kirby showed up, then Su from S.Korea, and after awhile Claire, a lovely girl from South Africa who we had yet to have crossed paths with.

We all headed off to bed (there were two separate rooms with bunks inside and some more beds in the common room). Little did we know, some late night action awaited us: mice. We had all hung our food, as you do when staying in huts, but we (nor Kirby) did not hang our bags. Up until this point, this had never been an issue.

Leah awoke from a deep sleep in confusion. Mathias and Kirby were talking, headlamps were flashing, there was lots of movement going on. It took Leah long time to gather (even though Matias and Kirby were explaining) what was going on. Mathias and Kirby had heard mice making a ruckus in the backpacks and had gotten out of bed to deal with the situation. Mathias saw a mouse in the open bottom compartment of Leah’s backpack. He tried to consult Leah to make a decision for next steps, but she was still waking up. So, he made the call. He zipped the bottom compartment, trapping the mouse inside the bag, and took the bag outside. When he went to release it, he realized that it had made its way into the main compartment, which was full. So, he began emptying out the bag and eventually the mouse jumped out and scurried away. Meanwhile, Kirby was convinced that she too had a mouse in her bag and was poking at the bag to see if it would come out. Leah watched this going on, still dazed and sitting on her bed. “Are you sure there is a mouse in your bag?” Leah asked. Just then a mouse jumped out of Kirby’s bag and ran across the room. Mathias returned and then hung our bags in hooks in the common room. Mathias and Kirby congratulated each other for good teamwork and passed out. Leah had not been part of the team and by this time had processed the prior events. She lay awake in bed listening to all of the sounds that could be mice in the night.

Day 90 - Hope Kiwi Hut to Hurunui #3 Hut

Start: @ km 2086
End: @ km 2113
Hiked: 27 km

We woke up at 6. Mathias had slept quite well, whereas Leah - after all the mouse action - had been a little paranoid about them and hadn’t slept good. We made breakfast and packed our stuff with beautiful views over the fields as it dawned outside. We enjoyed an extended social breakfast, talking to Kirby, Claire, Chris and Jan, so it took more than two hours for us to actually start hiking.

After the first steps through the tall wet grass our feet and legs were already soaking wet, which again made the decision easy - to cross the streams without too much thinking about it (often times we will look for rock paths that we can step on). The first part of the day mostly continued flat through grassland and a little bit of forest and we made good time.

After passing Lake Sumner, we crossed a huge field of cows and within these the 2100 km mark. We made it through the field without any cow drama and then crossed a swing bridge over Hurunui river.

When we got to Hurunui Hut, we had wraps and even took a little nap. The hut was nice and spacious, but it was too early to stop.

The second half of the day continued with a lot of up and down along the river. Later (too late) we found out that we could have just walked along the river banks, which would have been a lot faster. We passed “one of the highlights” of the TA, a pool fed by natural hot springs. Unfortunately it looked a little anticlimactic, we felt too hot already, and the sandflies would have eaten us alive so we just went on.

We were very happy to finally get to Hurunui No 3 Hut. It was old - one of the original Hurunui track huts - but nicely kept up. The main room was high and it had three bed high bunks on either side. We were happy to be able to sleep on the second level as the top bunks seemed really high.

Next to the hut was a little DOC research building and some DOC people camped there as they would check on the kiwi population in the area. They were so kind to give us an update on the weather for the next days. Not much changed: supposed to drizzle tomorrow afternoon and then rain heavy at night. That gave us a nice puzzle to solve as some of the rivers will not be passable after heavy rain. How far do we want to go? Where would we wait out the bad weather if we have to? Additionally the next hut had a reputation as the “rat nest” on Guthook, so we also wanted to avoid that one. Difficult. We didn’t really decide, but at least said we’ll get up early to see what to do.

Relatively late also Montana, a northbound hiker arrived and gave us some info about the upcoming section that he just did today. The upcoming downhill seems to be intense and another thing we don’t want to do in rain. Montana wasn’t traveling alone. He brought a tiny kitten that he had found in the forest and tried to keep alive and bring into the next town. It was so cute and looked a little like Mathias’s flat mate’s cats. We hope it’ll make it.

Unfortunately we only took a picture of the warning sign and not of the hot pool ;-)

Day 91 - Hurunui #3 Hut to Harper Pass Bivvy

Start: @ km 2113
End: @ km 2121.5
Hiked: 8.5 km

The alarm went off at 6. What to do? That was the question of the morning. The forecast was calling for rain, and it had been recommended that we get to where we wanted to be by lunchtime. The problem: where we wanted to be and where we might end up were two very different places. We wanted to push it to Kiwi Hut, which was only 22km away, but the trail notes indicated that it would take 10.5hours to get there. When you see this as a tramper you think, oh shit, what is in store for today? Why would it take that long? Will it really take that long? Where we could end up, if the hard rain came earlier and/or we didn’t make it as far as expected, was a place called Locke Stream Hut. Locke Stream Hut is also know as ‘Rat Hut’. We had read many comments about the rat problem at this hut and we wanted to avoid it at all costs (especially Leah, who made it very clear to Mathias that Rat Hut was not an option). The other option was to take a zero day at our current hut. But by 6:05 we decided to head on out and try to get to Kiwi Hut.

We started strong, keeping a good pace and things were looking hopeful, even after the drizzle started. We had wet feet within minutes, but again this kept us from slowing down. We came across our first 3-wire bridge across Cameron Stream, something Mathias had been looking forward to; however, it seemed less appealing in the rain. We both successfully made it across despite the slippery tightrope wire below our feet.

We followed the trail through some grassland and passed a very shady looking hut, one that looked more like a place to be murdered than a place to sleep. The drizzle, although light, managed to make everything damp and slippery. Going down was not fun. After three hours of hiking we came across Harper Pass Bivvy (‘a cramped 2 bunk box with one tiny window’-trail notes) and took a pause to access the situation. Everything was wet and slippery. We were hours away from our goal. And the next 6kms involved an accent up to Harpers Pass and a steep drop followed by multiple river crossings. The tiny dollhouse-like hut was actually quite cute. Simple as, but cozy... and dry.

We went back and forth but finally made the decision to stay. The rest of our day consisted of the hanging of all of our clothes and bags, a trilogy of snuggling naps, and multiple eating sessions while laying down because unless you were on the cold floor you couldn’t sit up.

The rain was heavy and we were so thankful to be warm and cozy in our mini-hut.

At one point there was a knock on the door: Su (from S.Korea) stood outside soaking wet. He came in to have a break from the rain. We were impressed that three people could fit. Earlier, we realized that we were running very low on gas for our stove. We completely forgot to grab a new cartridge in Hanmer Springs (big oops!). Su ended up giving us one he had found in a ‘free box’ a few days before; it had about 15%ish left. Thank you Su!

We fell asleep (again) to the sound of pouring rain and a loud flowing river. It was wonderful.

Day 92 - Harper Pass Bivvy to Locke Stream Hut

Start: @ km 2121.5
End: @ km 2128
Hiked: 6.5 km

We had set our alarm for a little later, because we wanted to check the rain situation in daylight before making any decision about whether to go on or not. It was still a little drizzly, but not too bad. So that was not giving us a clear indication of what to do. We were tempted to stay for another day and wait for good weather, but then again we didn’t know how it would continue the next days and we also said to ourselves: “we have been quite spoiled with good weather on this trip. When we planned the TA we were expecting to be wet most of the days and now we don’t want to leave the hut because of a little drizzle!”. So we thought we’ll give hiking in the rain a try and got ready - first time with full rain gear: rain fly, rain jacket and also the hardly used rain pants.

Putting on the wet socks and shoes sucked, but then again after the first steps through the wet grass it wouldn’t have made a difference if they would have been dry anyway. Because of all the rain the path was wet and full of puddles and mud and not easy to walk on. The otherwise probably little side steams had a lot of water and we had to wade through some of them. Once over the Harper Pass saddle the downhill was not as bad as we thought, but then in two places the trail was impassible, once because of erosion by the river where the path had slid down to the riverbed and a second time where a bunch of trees had fallen over the track. Often in these cases you can either still go over the trees or there is already an “established” path around it, but today we had to do a little bit of what they call “bush bashing”, where you have to make your own path through thick and steep greenery.

Around 14:00 we made it to Locke Stream Hut and met Su who had been staying here last night. It was the hut that had the bad reputation for rats and we just had a quick lunch and wanted to head on to Kiwi Hut because the rats really didn’t sound good to us. Su was worried about the water levels of the upcoming crossings and wanted to stay another night to wait for the rivers to get lower.

So we went on and after about 15 minutes the track crossed Taramakau River. It didn’t look good to us. The water level was significant and the speed of the river was way faster than walking speed (what is supposed to be a safe speed). We looked up and down the river for a safer spot to cross and Mathias gave it a try at the spot that looked best to us. But in the final bit his legs got pushed around by the strong current and he felt it wasn’t safe enough to risk us getting swept off our feet. So just a couple of meters from the other river side he turned back. We discussed a little longer and thought about other ideas, looked at the map again, but at the end decided that it really wasn’t safe for us and we had to go back and sleep in the “rat hut”. A decision that was especially hard for Leah - not that Mathias was excited about sleeping in a place that supposedly had rats...

So we went back and saw Su again. Alona from Czech Republic had arrived in the meantime and at the end of the day we would be around 11 hikers at the hut (Su, Brittany, Ilona, Kirby, Claire, Deb, German couple (Jakob&Franzi), Alexander, us). All of us didn’t want to be at rat hut but got stranded. The hut was actually pretty nice. It had a spacious main room with a fireplace and two bed rooms. But there was a smell of urin (probably rat pee) and mouse and rat shit everywhere, which made it quite disgusting. Unfortunately there was also no firewood to use the fireplace and the outhouse was disgusting in its own way as well. So we wouldn’t give this hut too many stars, but it is dry which in this weather is probably the mainly needed feature.

It was raining a bunch more in the afternoon but stopped in the evening. Hopefully it will not rain during the night, so that we can attempt the crossing again tomorrow. We all want to get out of here as soon as possible.

Day 93 - Locke Stream Hut to Morrison Footbridge

Start: @ km 2128
End: @ km 2149.5
Hiked: 21.5 km

There was no reported rat activity last night and everyone was stoked. All we could report on was the ongoing pungent stank of rat pee that stung our eyes and offended our noses throughout the night. Breakfast time was busy in the common area as we were all planning to depart at the same time-ish. We wanted to attempt the river in a group; first making sure it was passable, and second, to make sure everyone was safe during the cross.

The trail to the river was already significantly better than when we had gone the day before, and lucky for us, the river was less intense as well. It was still thigh high and quite fast moving, but doable. We went one by one, offering words of advice and encouragement to each other. It felt like a real team effort. We all felt proud and excited to have made the first cross of the day.

After the crossing the aim was to Kiwi hut for snack break, about 8km ahead. The track was wet and muddy but we were feeling good, especially with the blue skies and sunshine up above. We ended up skipping the hut (it was a 30ish minutes detour round trip) and just snacking in the grass. We left with Alex (a German guy), heading to the next river. It was a bit stronger than the previous crossing, but we still felt safe. Then it was off to the biggest river crossing of the day.

When we got to the river we were a bit shocked. There was no clear trail marking as to where we should pass, and the river looked intimidating. It was fast flowing, much bigger than the previous river, and deeper. Alex ended up walking way upstream and crossing at a section that was waist higher. We found another place that we thought would be better, which it was 75% of the way, but then it got quite deep and strong and we ended up turning back. We were so close to the other side, but better safe than sorry.

We knew the rest of the group was close behind and so we waited to see what they thought. After some discussions and testing we crossed all together like we’ve seen it in the river crossing safety videos: one line of people, strongest towards the ends, arm in arm holding onto each other’s backpack. It worked quite well, but was certainly on the edge of what was doable as at some point the smaller of us lost their grip and were basically floating, for us at the deepest bit the water was waste deep and our backpacks got wet. Still in the end it worked out. We continued on more or less as a group. The trail was poorly marked and often we would have to guess where it might be or just walk along the river bed.

At one point we heard a scream. It turned out Brittany got hurt. She fell and had a stick poke her under the knee causing at least a deep cut and hopefully not much more. Claire was super helpful and took care of the wound. Luckily Brittany was able to walk the remaining part of the trail.

We arrived at a footbridge to the highway which for most of the group meant hitching to Arthur’s Pass, but for us it was the campground for tonight together with Alex, Su and the German couple (Jakob&Franzi).

Day 94 - Morisson Footbridge to Goat Pass Hut

Start: @ km 2149.5
End: @ km 2164
Hiked: 14.5 km

We woke up to a wet tent full of sandflies and decided to ignore reality for another 30 minutes and turn around once more. But then we got ready, had some quick coffee and breakfast and started in our group of four with Su and Alex. It was cloudy but seemed like the sun might be able to come through later. After 1.5 km we got to the first of around 19 river crossings of the day. It was high and fast but doable. It took a while of further hiking to get to the crucial second crossing that was supposed to be the hardest of the section. It was here where we were to decide if it was doable or not. It turned out to be okay and we were happy to be able to continue.

The trail got more and more beautiful as we continued on. There was lots of bolder hopping action which only progressed after we passed the first hut and got closer to our destination. At one point there was a bit of a sketchy move, leaping from one bolder to the next over some deep, fast moving water... We all made it and Alex even managed to capture a pretty epic picture of Leah in action. It got steeper and we had a lot of rock climbing in the mix. It was such a technical, but super fun hike/climb. The final km involved climbing up a cascade of waterfalls, which was safe enough and pretty much icing on the cake at this point.

We arrived at Goats Pass Hut to find Adam ‘Papa’ (a TA hiker we had met during the Nelson Lakes section) chilling out on the deck enjoying a zero day. What a nice surprise. There was one other couple at the hut as well when we arrived. Over the next couple of hours, many more would arrive; ending the night with 16 hikers; some familiar faces (like Clair, yay!) and some new. We sat around chatting and sharing stories of trail life and beyond. Everyone had had a good day on the wicked trail and the hut was filled with good vibes.

Day 95 - Goat Pass Hut to Arthur’s Pass

Start: @ km 2164
End: @ km 2181
Hiked: 17 km

The way going down from Goats Pass Hut was way easier than the uphill on the day before. It even had all the swampy bits covered with boardwalks. Together with Su and Alex, we made some good time. Unfortunately a slippery rock had it out for Leah and she twisted her ankle, lucky that she didn’t fall down further as her left leg already hung from the cliff side of the path. Also lucky that it wasn’t too bad and she could continue walking with just a bit of pain. There were still river crossings involved, so our feet were wet again for most of the day.

As we got to he highway, Su directly tried to hitch into town. The rest of us, went on to have a little less track to cover on the next day and to grab a nice snack at Bealey Hotel. The trail was hardly marked at that point leading to some confusion and frustration but we managed to find our way. We found the hotel just to find that it was still closed until later afternoon - no snack for us. It took us a while to get a hitch by we were eventually picked up by a lovely Bavarian girl.

In Arthur’s Pass we checked into our “concrete tent” at The Sanctuary and did the usual town pentathlon: cleaning us and the laundry, shopping, catching up with family, blog writing and going out to eat.

After the four of us finished four pizzas that were meant to be for two people each, the waiter asked who had eaten the spicy Peperoni pizza. That would have been Mathias. He then told us that in the last four months, nobody had managed to finish the entire pizza. Victory! Everyone got a free little marshmallow for desert, except for Leah who they explained hadn’t finished her pizza (yet, she finished it on the same night together with a piece of cake to make up for the missed desert).