Heaphy Track Day 3
9pm in my tent and the weather you ask? Why it’s windy and raining, what else? This rain has been the pits. Last night at Mackay Hut I had my tent set up as did the father/son from Adelaide. It had been raining off and on all day but around 7pm it really started to downpour so I thought well better get to the tent and make sure she’s alright so I went and for the next 10 hours it absolutely POURED and even hailed three times with gusts of gale force winds as well. It was NOT a positive tent experience. Really, it felt like someone was just pouring bucket after bucket of water on my tent. Never been in a storm where it rained so hard for so long. My tent was doing a great job fighting off the rain but eventually the ground became so wet that the water started coming in through the bottom. I thought I was going to float away. And it was COLD, especially with the high winds. I didn’t sleep very much.
I should have just packed up and slept in the hut (which I found out this morning is what the other 2 did), but I didn’t know if I was allowed to do that since I only paid for a camping pass. Well now I know and I will never put myself through a night like that again if I don’t have to.
Finally this morning at 5am I decided that I couldn’t stand it anymore – the whole inside bottom of my tent was wet and it was STILL pouring – so I packed up and ran down to the hut. My tent was a sopping mess and my sleeping bag was very damp and I was miserable from the lack of sleep and overall stress. I had no desire to face a day of tramping in the downpour after fighting it all night. Decided I needed to get warm asap so I boiled water up for my water bottles and got in my wet sleeping bag with the warm bottles and laid in my bag for well over an hour inside the hut. And it was STILL pouring outside. I’m not talking steady rain here – I’m talking DOWNPOUR.
The other group of four older NZ’ers who were nice and dry from staying in the hut set out on the trail by about 8:30am. Then the father/son from Adelaide who were nice and dry from staying in the hut set out about 45 minutes later. Which left me, who was wet and cold from sleeping in her tent all night, alone in the nice and dry hut. I knew I had to pack up and go too but I waited for a little break in the rain which finally came about 9:30am and I left with my backpack full of wet gear. Yuck.
Once I got going it wasn’t so bad and today was a downhill day out of the mountains and down to the Tasman Sea so the temps got warmer on the way down and the rain managed to hold off for most of the 4.5-hour walk to make the 21.5 km here (about 15 miles). The scenery was so nice though – with all this rain there was never a forest so green. Every fern is full of fiddleheads and every rock is covered with vibrant moss. The trail was very, very muddy, but being back in sandals the wet trail doesn’t bother me a bit. Finally got to Heaphy Hut around 2:30pm and the sun was actually out for a minute so I had a major drying out session all afternoon, just enough time to get everything dry for the evening storms! Hah! Well at least the inside of my tent is dry and my sleeping bag is drier (for now). The warden here mentioned how we had a big storm come in last night. No shit man. I was in the eye of it!! I don’t expect any dramatic repeats tonight – just a little gentle shower would be enough for me thanks.
Tomorrow will be the last day of the Heaphy Track for me. I’ll be following the coast south and coming to the western end of the tramp. So tomorrow night should involve beer and good food in the little town of Karamea, rain or no rain I’m there!
The Heaphy Hut
Views of the Tasman Sea
My dry tent, look quick it wont be dry for long!
Add comment December 13th, 2002