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St Arnaud to Boyle Village

Te Araroa - days 81 to 89

By Nature Is Calling

February 17^th, 2020

Day 81 - St. Arnaud to John Tait Hut

Start: @ km 1945
End: @ km 1967.5
Hiked: 22.5 km

As we had decided not to take a zero day but a half day in St. Arnaud, we started the day off with asking for a late checkout and enjoying the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet for almost two hours and filled up as much as possible. We can just say it again: one of the great perks of the long distance hiking is that you can eat guilt free as much as and almost whatever you want.

We checked with the local DOC (Department of Conservation) office for the next section and they didn't have much to tell us, a little bit of rain would be coming in in a few days, but nothing to worry about. We bought a few additional outdoor meals there and then headed off just after noon... in our new shoes (which we had sent ourselves in the parcel from Wellington).

The trail followed along the lake and we had beautiful views. We decided to keep going for a while, even though jumping into the water was really tempting. Our plan was to jump in at the end of the lake where there was a little jetty, but when we got there, a huge group of TA hikers was sitting there and our romantic plan was not taken to fruition. Also infringing upon the romanticism of the lake view walk was the wasps; they were out in abundance. Luckily we were not stung, Mathias insuring safe legs by tucking his pants into his socks. We sexy it up on the TA.

We ran in to Tom and Giulia while walking and they, like us, were trying to decide if it would be a one hut or two hut day. We all stopped at the first hut to have lunch. It was cozy. It was starting to suck us in... but Mathias and I fought the urge to stay and pushed on towards the second hut. When we arrived at John Tait Hut it was a little bit strange because this was the first time in awhile that we did not know anybody there. There were many non-TA hikers occupying the hut as the track we were on was popular for shorter hikes as well. We ended up meeting a nice local who used to be a guide in the area. He gave us some good tips and talked with us about weather safety.

An hour or so after we had arrived, Tom and Giulia showed up, having decided to push on as well. The local guy we had been talking to looked at them and said, "I know you." It turns out he had given them a hitch a week or so back. Small world, good times. In not so 'good times' news, when Tom and Giulia went to cook their dinner for the night, they found out that their stove was broken. We were happy to share ours, but with the next 5-7 days in the mountains, they would need their own. So, they knew that tomorrow they would be hiking back out the way they came and would have to start back another day. Fortunately, the local said he was also hiking back to St. Arnaud and could give them a lift to a near town where they could buy a new stove.

Before heading to bed, we saw mice running on top of the roof. As mentioned, there were non-TA trampers in the hut and a lot of them had left their food laying around. We, having experienced mice for the past week or so, were not happy with this fact. The people sleeping on the bunks under us had also opened the window, to obviously let in some air... but we also knew that it might be a welcomed invitation for the mice. Leah tried to close the window. A minute later they opened it back up. Whatcha gonna do? Hope for the best. Leah passed out. Mathias did not.

Day 82 - John Tait Hut to Upper Traverse Hut

Start: @ km 1967.5
End: @ km 1974.5
Hiked: 7 km

Leah had a good night's sleep. Sadly, Mathias did not as he laid in bed for a while listening to mice running around. But it was a new day, and we had an easy go ahead of us. We had heard and read about the next hut and it has a wonderful reputation. It was only 7km ahead. We've never done a day so short... so today was going to be a first. We began our morning with coffee, a long breakfast and nice chats with Giulia and Tom. Before heading back, they gifted us some wraps (which are always in high demand) and a Snickers bar (Thank you!).

Our aim after leaving the hut was to get to the waterfall just 2km ahead to have a nice swim, but when we got there the air was still feeling quite cold and the walk down to the water was not ideal. So, instead we had a snack while listening to the sound of the flowing water and watching the rainbow mist before moving on. We walked on along the river enjoying the sounds and sights and then came across the perfect swimming hole: in the sunshine and no sandflies in sight. The water was freezing but wonderful and we were able to lay on top of the big boulders filling the river to dry off.

The final few kilometers to the hut were lovely with stunning views of the surrounding mountain ranges. When we made it to the hut, we knew we had made a good choice to stay. The hut had big windows and a great porch. There were two sleeping rooms which were separated from the main room and kitchen area. This is especially nice when people are getting up early in the morning (usually us) so they/we do not disturb those still trying to sleep. After claiming our prime spots on the top bunk next to the windows looking out at the mountings, we had ourselves a yummy snack.

There was a deck of cards at the hut and we played a game of Cribbage. Card time was followed by naps on the deck, a bit of blog catch-up and then naps in the bunk. When we woke up, the hut was filled with so many hikers. There were so many people that all 20 beds had been taken and there were at least 5 tents pitched outside. We were glad to have gotten to the hut so early... and to have had such a calm and relaxing day. Sleep.

Day 83 - Upper Traverse Hut to Blue Lake Hut

Start: @ km 1974.5
End: @ km 1990
Hiked: 15.5 km

Despite having such a great sleeping spot in such a wonderful hut, Leah had not slept well; Bad dreams and toilet breaks. But, to her delight, she had seen the sparkling stars filling the night sky. Mathias too had witnessed the magical sky in the night. Lucky us.

It seems that everyone had had the idea to get an early start on the day, but we were all staggered so it was still good. Mathias set a great fast pace for us as we headed uphill. The view from the top was incredible and every uphill step that got us there was well worth it. The downhill was, as expected, less fun as it was long, steep and loose. At one point Mathias had a fall, and thankfully he was okay; Leah was still crying though as it was scary to witness her love in danger.

We took a lunch break at the first hut we came across. We ended up eating inside the hut because the sandflies outside were ruthless and we wanted nothing to do with them. Mathias did take a moment outside to observe the baby birds nesting just above one of the hut's windows.

The second part of the day's hike was absolutely lovely. It followed alongside the river and there were beautiful views of the surrounding mountains from within the valley. We arrived at Blue Lake Hut around 4pm and there were still beds available; score! As there was still lots of time left in the day, we walked around the area; visiting Blue Lake (which apparently has some of the clearest water in the world). The colors within the lake were majestic, and even though we snapped some pictures, they just don't do it justice. The lake looked so inviting, but we were not allowed to go in as it is sacred to Maori. We were just happy to witness its beauty.

Afterwards, Leah took a nap and Mathias went on in search of a swimming hole to have a bath. Unfortunately he did not find one, but still managed to take a shower in ankle-deep river water. Dinner time involved our staple: mashed potatoes, soup mix, fried onions, quick-cook lentils and peas. Also, nice chats with Kirby and some brits on working holiday.

We were thankful for another great day, a super cute and cozy hut and a chocolate dessert: Snickers.

Day 84 - Blue Lake Hut to Waiau Hut

Start: @ km 1990
End: @ km 2006
Hiked: 16 km

Today was the big day of the section, the crossing of the Waiau Pass. After Kirby had had a small accident yesterday (sliding down next to the track) and felt a little shaken and nervous about the downhill after the pass, we had offered to give her company today and look out for each other.

We got up early and had coffee and breakfast outside the hut, then quickly packed everything and the three of us headed out. The first little bit went past the beautiful Blue Lake and Lake Constance and already provided some beautiful views. Then we got a little lost: We spotted an old marker pole in the middle of a boulder field and walked there. Afterwards we didn't see any hint on how to continue. Checking the GPS we found that the track was a lot more uphill and we had to decide whether to go back and find the track again or climb up the steep rock to the track. We tried climbing first and it was a little frightening and we aborted the first try. It feels so much more unsafe, climbing with a heavy pack on your back that tries to drag you down backwards... Kirby decided to track back and find the track, we tried climbing at a different spot again and at the end Kirby was a little faster, but we ended up at the track pretty much at the same time.

After that the track was easier for a while and we followed a pretty flat valley for some time before suddenly the track turned left and went steep steep up to the pass. We liked that someone on a marker had added a note "we ran out of switchbacks". It really felt this way, just steep up and crossing fields of scree. It was pretty exhausting but on the other hand rewarded us with the most beautiful views over the lakes and mountains surrounding us.

We could also see the horde of Germans (8 of them) following us in the not too far distance and they just looked like little Hobbits on their quest. We met them all on the pass at 1870m elevation. They stopped and took a lunch break. It was too windy for us and we already had some breaks on the way up, so we continued.

Downhill was just as steep, but more solid rock, which was probably better than the scree. It involved some climbing, putting down the poles and using the hands and walking backwards, but was manageable. We were happy that we didn't have to do it in the rain and all rock had enough grip. Kirby was a little frightened at points, but overall also did a great job.

One last thing to mention about the downhill: Almost all the way down, Su, the South Korean came back the other way without his pack and we wondered what happened. He had lost a sandal that was attached to his pack while climbing down and was now on a mission to find it again. Dedication. The thing is that there is not exactly one right track, but many paths you can take between the markers, so it wasn't trivial to search exactly the way he used before. Later we heard that he went all the way back to the pass (almost 600m elevation again) and back, but didn't find it.

After the downhill was done and Kirby wanted to slow down a bit, we split up as we wanted to head for the next hut: Waiau Hut. Along the way we passed several groups of hikers that had pitched their tent, so we were hopeful, that we still could get one or two of the six bunks in the hut. But when we arrived there, shortly after the 2000 km mark (2/3 done!!), it was full already. Full with hikers (6) and full with sandflies (thousands). We had to pitch our tent and just used the hut to cook dinner inside, because the sandflies were really awful and there was no point in doing anything outside.

We went to bed, killed all the sandflies that got into the tent with us and listened to the sound of the remaining sandflies outside that sounded like rain on the tent.

Day 85 - Waiau Hut to Boyle Flat Hut

Start: @ km 2006
End: @ km 2048
Hiked: 42 km 🥳

We quickly took the tent down as the sandflies were still crazy in the morning and flew into the hut for our sanity and had breakfast there. We met one of the hikers, John, who had done the pass on the day before, too. He was 70 years old and rightfully very happy about his accomplishment.

The first part of the track today went through the beautiful and flat valley. Fortunately someone yesterday told us that there would be quite some river crossings, so Leah did a quick call on the first river that we wouldn't worry to much about our shoes and get our feet wet and that turned out to save us quite some time, because we had to cross something every 5 - 15 minutes for a while. Just when the feet felt a bit dryer again, another river would come up. It was really hot, so we didn't mind that much!

We were able to do quite some progress and were enjoying to be able to go much faster than in the last days that had so much elevation, while still having a nice view of all the mountains in the background. We also had fun with lots of tiny butterflies that surrounded us, when we walked through the fields and startled them.

We got to the beautiful and big Anne Hut, that we originally wanted to stay at. We had a nice lunch break there and enjoyed the view as well as some of the cleanest long drop toilets on the trail. Kirby came in after a while and it was nice to catch up and see that she was fine and in good spirits after the long day yesterday. It was hard to leave, but we wanted to push forward, to avoid the rain that was forecasted for tomorrow afternoon and also to be able to arrive in Boyle Village during the daylight tomorrow, so it was easier to get a hitch into Hanmer Springs. So we walked on to cross Anne Saddle.

It started very easy. Someone had mowed a nice wide path for a while that was very easy to walk on, but after a bridge it wasn't mowed any more, but overgrown and the trail also started to have some boggy patches. Overall still good and the uphill / downhill over the saddle wasn't too steep at all. Still we were looking forward to being done.

At the foot of the saddle we needed a short break and sat down and were just swarmed by sandflies that tried (and succeeded) biting us everywhere. It would be sooo much nicer without these little annoying bastards. They kind of ruin every swim, break, viewpoint opportunity. Grrrrr. So the break was rather short and we had to continue. Same happened to us again, when we stopped to fill up our water at a little stream. Grrrr!

Finally we got to a swing bridge with a sign for Boyle Flat Hut, which was just on the other side of the river. In the hut we saw Anouk and Elli again and got to meet Adam (trail name: Papa) and a few more TA hikers. We enjoyed our Ramen in wraps (Leah with peanut butter, Mathias with tomato paste) and an outdoor meal dessert "apricot crumble". The hut was pretty nice. It was a little older and had some character, but still didn't seem run down or too dirty.

Day 86 - Boyle Flat Hut to Boyle Village / Hanmer Springs

Start: @ km 2048
End: @ km 2060.5
Hiked: 12.5 km

Thanks to our additional effort yesterday, we could enjoy a short day today and didn't have to hurry to much in the morning. The walk to Boyle Village was uneventful, but nice and easy for our feet on soft forest ground. After arriving in Boyle Village, we stopped to check our messages and mails, just to find again, that the sandflies didn't want us to do that, so we went on to the outdoor education center, where we picked up the supply box that we had sent to ourselves from Wellington and had a celebratory ginger beer! We finished another section!

We went to the road to find a hitch to Hanmer Springs. Two girls were already standing there and we waited for them to get a hitch first. It took them about half an hour in total, so we were a little nervous about how it would work out for us. But then it didn't even take 10 minutes until two girls from Christchurch offered to take us most of the way - to the turnoff to Hanmer. They had just come back from a weekend tramp themselves. Awesome. At the turnoff we didn't have to wait long either until a nice older Dutch couple brought us into town. So nice how this works out here. Magical.

In town we ran into Denis and heard about who else was in town already. We went to a cafe for snacks and checked for accomodation. The Hanmer Springs backpackers looked good and was just a few minutes away, so we walked over. She wasn't sure she had a room (but we were pretty sure as we just checked on booking) or maybe she just missjudged our budget. It was a little odd start, but she turned out to be nice.

One other thing to mention is that we both thought that the backpackers had a a typo in their wifi password that contained “hanmer”. We had been talking about the town for days as ‘Hamner’ and never noticed our mistake.

We got a lot of our typical town tasks done already on that half day: laundry including the hunt for a lost sock, Leah called family, pizza, wine, beer. We just had one drink though and deterred from our plan to get “Hanmered”.

After watching a beautiful sunset, we crashed and enjoyed a cozy bed in our own private room. Luxury!

Yes. There is a typo in our sign. HaNMer Springs. Narf.

day 87/88 - Zero Days in Hanmer Springs

We stayed in Hanmer for another two full days because Leah had an upcoming Skype interview, we were in need of some extended rest, and also still figuring out the upcoming weather situation.

Small statistics for our stay:

Library for blog writing: 2 times
Mumbles Cafe: 2 times
Powerhouse Cafe: 2 times
Hamner Fish N Chip Shop: 1 time
Saints Café & Bar: 1 time
Four Square Supermarket: 10 times+
Monteiths Brewery Bar: 1 time

Almost all the action in Hanmer happens in one street, so we continuously ran into other TA hikers. A hotspot for this was also the library, which was great to get some work on the blog done as their wireless was fast and between noon and 4pm we could even use their computers which is way more fun than writing on a phone.

We visited the Four Square so often that Leah made friends with one of the people working there. Mathias wouldn’t have been surprised if they would have hugged for the good bye on Tuesday night.

Leah’s interview turned out not to be one; it was a job offer instead. Enough said.. Leah could not be more excited about her new school. We are super stoked!! 🥳🎉🍾