Posts filed under 'Heaphy'
Warm and dry, what a wonderful feeling! I’ve opted for a night in a hostel, the first night inside since I left Auckland, and I think it was well deserved after the last 4 days of rain. Didn’t even get to mention the sandflies either - last night they were the WORST at the Heaphy campsite - literally hundreds of them swarming me while cooking dinner. I didn’t have any DEET either, not knowing if I’d need it or not. Now I know I do! My feet are especially covered with bites. Had about 50 or so of the buggers inside my tent with me and spent a long time killing every last one before calling it a night.
Then the rains came again. Several downpours followed by high winds throughout the night. I wasn’t as exposed in this site as I was the night before and the rains weren’t nearly as bad, but the ground was so wet from the previous days of rain that I still had some water coming through the bottom of my tent. Ugh. So much for the successful drying out session of the afternoon. Dry. wet, wet, wet, dry, wet, but always wet in the end.
Packed up my tent in the rain this morning and headed out just before the father/son (Richard/Thomas) from Adelaide. 16.5 km from the campsite to the end of the Heaphy Track, and this last section is said to be’one of the most beautiful walks in the south island.’ The trail follows the coastline of the Tasman Sea south and it is really beautiful. Even in the rain! The pounding surf of the sea is quite loud as you walk and the trail itself goes through lush forest and nikau palms. Only ocean and mountains as far as you can see in both directions. Really nice! The track itself was puddles and mud and all the streams were swollen from the rain and gushing down the hills into the sea.
4.5 hours later and I was at the end of the Heaphy Track, at the carpark in Kohaihai, which is a great campsite right on the sea. There’s a phone there and I called ahead to reserve a place at the hostel. The father/son had a taxi coming already to pick them up and drive them to Westport, and they were nice enough to give me a ride into Karamea along the way. Thanks for that! Right to the door of the hostel, the Last Resort.
Had lunch and two beers straightaway. Ahhh. Life is good again even if I am cold and wet. Next put all clothes into the laundry. Then walked to the grocery to resupply my food. No small bottles of shampoo or conditioner though so no washing of the hair, yet. Oh well. Can’t have it all. Back to the hostel, HOT SHOWER! Then an afternoon nap in my room with the rain pelting outside. Not a better feeling in the world.
Tomorrow I must break away to start the Wangapeka Track. a 4-day (hopefully) 52 km track which is meant to be more challenging terrain than the Heaphy but still has great scenery. Hoping for some better weather please. And not too bad river crossings with all the rain. One thing I know for sure is that I will sleep warm and dry tomight. Oh yeah…
Views of the Tasman Sea,
water, and
Nikau palms
December 14th, 2002
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!
December 13th, 2002
It’s pissing down rain and I’m in my tent at the Mackay Shelter on the Heaphy Track. Went 19 km today that’s about 12 miles I think. Got up early, hit the trail at 8am and didn’t see anyone all day which was great. Nice trail, easy walking through the forest and tussock, just a bummer having to deal with the light rain all morning. Got to this hut early, at 12:30pm, and thought about going further, but didn’t really feel like doing another 5 hours in the rain (that’s where the next hut is) so I decided to call it a day. I was able to set up my tent in between showers and then relaxed in the hut with a cup of tea for a bit.
The father/son from Adelaide who I camped with last night showed up eventually and we hung out for awhile together then I went to my tent for an afternoon kip.
When I went back to the hut later there were 4 more people there - a group of New Zealanders, as well as the father/son. A small group overall especially with 3 in tents and only 4 in a 20-person hut. The rain picked up again and it’s been heavy and steady for the last 2 hours. I hope it rains all night and becomes clear and sunny tomorrow! It would be nice to have some decent weather tomorrow because the track is headed down to the coast with views of the Tasman Sea. There certainly is no lack of green forest with all this rain I can tell you that. But enough is enough already! One clear day to have some sun and one clear night to see the stars PLEASE!
It wouldn’t be so green and lush if it didnt rain ALL THE TIME
No views, no sun, just rain and blah
No lack of water anywhere thats for sure
December 12th, 2002
It’s 8pm and I’m the only person in this 10-person hut. There’s a father/son from Adelaide outside in a tent, and the 3 of us are the only ones here. I’ve got a nice fire going in the old stone fireplace and the heat is a divine relief from the cold, wet weather outside.
24 km (15 miles) to get here today. It was a long day, mostly because I had to hitch-hike 120 km from Motueka to get to the trailhead before I even started hiking. As always the hitches were interesting. I packed up my gear early this morning and was on the road hitching out of town at about 8:30am. I only had time to unpeal my banana and take one bite before I got my first ride by some older guy in a pickup. He drove me a fair bit of the way, about 52 km, to Takaka, and we had a nice chat along the way. We were talking about maps for awhile actually and when he dropped me off he gave me a Kahurangi National Park topo map for free which was so cool because I didn’t have one!
From Takaka I stuck the thumb out again and this time was picked up by an elderly couple who were Jehovah’s Witnesses and on their way to talk to people about Jesus. I guess the trade off for getting a free lift was that I had to hear about why Jesus came to earth for about 25 minutes. They let me off in Collingwood.
From there the hitching became more difficult, because I had to get 33 km down a one-way road to the start of the track and there wasn’t much traffic heading that way at all. Lucky for me I got picked up by a sheep farmer and his wife who have a farm half-way out on that road. Got to hear about their 1100 acres of land and 9000 sheep! and more interesting than anything else, their 6 trained sheep-herding dogs. I was most fascinated to learn how to train a dog to herd sheep.
The farmers let me out at their turn-off where I was officially in the Middle of Nowhere and still a good 16 km from the trailhead, so I sucked it up and started walking. About 15 minutes later a lone car came by on the dirt and gravel road.
Thumb out, thinking please PLEASE!
They stopped! A couple heading out to the park for a day hike was kind enough to pick me up and take me to my destination.
I was finally at the trailhead at 11:30am and got my gear sorted and started hiking at 12 noon. It was a late start but better than I expected because I knew I’d have trouble hitching (everyone told me it was impossible), so I was considering myself lucky.
It was 16 km or 10 miles to the Perry Saddle Hut, the first hut on the track. It was a nice, gradual uphill through the forest to get there. Took me 4.5 hours. Passed one family and 3 women on the way so yes I was happy that there weren’t a lot of people on the track. Weather started out good this morning but clouded over by afternoon and it looked like rain was imminent when I arrived at the hut at 4:30pm. But there was no camping available at the hut and I’ve only bought a camping pass for this tramp so I pressed on another 8 km to get to Gouland Downs. It was worth it mainly because the rain held out AND there are only 2 other people here AND it’s got the fireplace (other hut didn’t) AND I’m sleeping inside because there is no warden here so I’ve got the hut to myself. And since I arrived it started to rain so I’m happy to be dry inside. The weather doesn’t look good for tomorrow either but we’ll see (this is normally a 5-day tramp but I’m planning to do it in 4). I’m feeling sleepy now so I’m going to retire to the sleeping bag….
My almost 30+ km road walk to the start of the tramp
So many ferns in the forest
Tired, but warm and dry
December 11th, 2002
