February 16th: Hanmer Springs to Hope Kiwi Lodge
Reluctantly we left the YHA and headed out on the road. We've never felt so stuck in any one place before, but yesterday's hitching disaster had done a number on us.
We waited for about 45 minutes and finally got a ride to the frwy junction. At least we were free from Hanmer Springs! Meeting up with another fellow TA hiker David (Houston) all three of us decided to combine our hitching powers. An hour later and we were in a car heading to Windy Point to rejoin the TA.
The start of the trail was somewhat of a let down. It was really becoming quite dry in this area. I'd read an article that farmers were destroying their livesstock- after today I'd believe it.
It was a 15km hike to the kiwi lodge. We took a wrong turn right off the bat due to lack of trail markers. 15 minutes of Backtracking had us on the trail and heading out of the dessert-like flats to beautiful forest.
It was a nice track through flat grassland, riverbank, and forest.
Other than being attacked by millions of sandflies and walking through a bit of mud we had a good time.
At hope Kiwi lodge we met Serena (Canada) and Nicholas (France) Over dinner all of us gawked at the mice running in and out of everyone's packs. And this was during the day! Outside there was an army of sand flies waiting for us, so camping was out of the question.
All of us went into "mini bear mode" and hung up our stuff. Hopefully that will be good enough. So far the sand flies and rodents are far more aggressive on the South Island. I'm seriously considering buying a mouse trap next town visit!
February 17th: Kiwi Lodge to Hurunui Hut
Cody was still feeling drained of energy so we decided to hike to the nearest hut making it a half day for us.
Most of the TA hikers who had hung their food up were hit pretty hard by mice. Poor Serena had her cheese, wraps, and oats nibbled tbrough. Thankfully our stuff was left alone since there were other easier targets.
It was a mild trail through forests teeming with bird song. Tui's, Robins, fan tails, and a bunch of other birds that we couldn't identify were all around the forest.
We were at our destination hut by 2pm.
Hurunui Hut was very spacious and comfortable. 7 TA hikers including ourselves filled the bunks with room to spare.
So far we haven't seen any mice, unlike the last hut. Hopefully we won't have any trouble tonight.
February 18th: Hurunui Hut to Harpers Pass Bivy
Apart from seeing one mouse in the morning we were undisturbed by rodents. Yay!
Our walk was relatively easy, mostly because we got off the ridiculous TA trail and traveled the dry riverbed. The trail was definitely getting worse the further we traveled. We hardly ever saw any new signs of maitenance. Many trees had fallen making large pile ups that forced hikers to make radical detours around the trail.
We stopped by the only hot spring on the TA; which was unfortunatly far too hot to sit in. I dunked my feet in just to say I went in a hot spring on the trail.
Fun FunFun! 3 wire bridge crossing
We stopped by number 3 hut and chatted with the TA a hikers that were there. We had plans to go onto Harpers Pass bivy in hopes of seeing a kiwi. They were known for hanging around that area.
After a rough section of trail we finally made it to the bivy. It was quite a scary looking metal box that was probably designed for Hobbits...or tiny UT fans :) There was no way both of us could fit in it so we set up camp outside.
We cooked dinner on the "porch" which was a mistake. We hadn't realised that how badly the area reeked of human urine until we were halfway through cooking our meal. Then we noticed that the grass was dead all around the porch-gross! Lazy people were just peeing right out of the doorway...and we were sitting in it.
The surrounding area was either on a hill or next to a rushing river. This did not seem like the place that we'd get a kiwi sighting. Somewhat crawled into bed, straining our ears to hear a kiwi whistle.
February 19th: Harpers Bivy to Locke Stream Hut
We never saw a kiwi, but Cody was sure he heard the whistle at 5am. Otherwise it was a quiet place to sleep, no mice or rats came to bother us-whew. It was a nice break from the huts which are generally very noisy at night with rodents scurrying through our stuff.
We hiked a rough path down old stream beds through mountains and along a river. Between the mud and river crossings it seems like our shoes were never going to get dry.
Today was a short day though, and we got to the hut around lunchtime. We met up with 5 other TA hikers and settled in right before it started to rain. Hooray for good timing!
Everyone hanging out in the cozy hut.
The hut book had warning notes all over it about the rats- not good. We all discussed various ways of hanging our food. Cody came up with a new idea of hiding our stuff under a bucket and placing a large river rock on top (I'll tell you now that it worked really well) prepping our food before bed was a bit like being back in Yosemite with the bears. These mice keep you up by scurrying around the hut all night; and they can crawl over your body as you sleep. I miss bears.
That night a mouse crawled on the board right next to our head. Cody has been traumatized since a mouse crawled on his head at Abel Tasman. So he didn't sleep much that night.
February 20th: Locke Stream Hut to Arthurs Pass
We started out the morning with a trail, then somehow it disappeared and we were left with a boulder field in the middle of a wide river bed.
And lots of "where the hell did that trail marker go!?" We all gave up and just tried to take the easiest path.
Which meant more boulders...
We all said goodbye at the split and the two headed on the TA while Cody and I got off the trail before Arthurs Pass. Neither Cody nor I wanted to spend the next two days on a river bed do we bailed out early for more exciting propositions in the near future.
For camille, I'm pretty sure I found the hiking version of you
We planned to get to Christchurch, and after checking out the earthquake damage were going to head to Kaikoura to see whales. We'd catch up with the TA after that and hopefully run into some of our old friends too.
Getting a hitch into Arthurs Pass wasn't easy, especially since we had to do it twice. One to get into the town, and another to go pick up our resupply box outside of town then head back into town for accomidation.
After a lot of hitching around we finally were able to unload at the YHA in Arthurs Pass. Our food that we had retrieved had been picked over by a Kea. Oatmeal, Cliff bars, noodles, had all been eatin into. We were more stoked than upset, we hadn't seen these giant Alpine parrots yet but we're very excited about them.
Once back into town we had our first Kea experience. He was pecking at trash on the side of the road, so majestic.
Still we were excited to see it.
February 21st: Arthurs Pass to Christchurch
This morning a Kea stole the butter sachet from my breakfast plate. Well played sir! add that to the list at the Kea has stolen, like the contents of our bounce box.
After breakfast, we got on a bus and headed towards Christchurch. Leaving the destructive keas behind us.
Reluctantly we left the YHA and headed out on the road. We've never felt so stuck in any one place before, but yesterday's hitching disaster had done a number on us.
We waited for about 45 minutes and finally got a ride to the frwy junction. At least we were free from Hanmer Springs! Meeting up with another fellow TA hiker David (Houston) all three of us decided to combine our hitching powers. An hour later and we were in a car heading to Windy Point to rejoin the TA.
The start of the trail was somewhat of a let down. It was really becoming quite dry in this area. I'd read an article that farmers were destroying their livesstock- after today I'd believe it.
It was a 15km hike to the kiwi lodge. We took a wrong turn right off the bat due to lack of trail markers. 15 minutes of Backtracking had us on the trail and heading out of the dessert-like flats to beautiful forest.
It was a nice track through flat grassland, riverbank, and forest.
Other than being attacked by millions of sandflies and walking through a bit of mud we had a good time.
At hope Kiwi lodge we met Serena (Canada) and Nicholas (France) Over dinner all of us gawked at the mice running in and out of everyone's packs. And this was during the day! Outside there was an army of sand flies waiting for us, so camping was out of the question.
All of us went into "mini bear mode" and hung up our stuff. Hopefully that will be good enough. So far the sand flies and rodents are far more aggressive on the South Island. I'm seriously considering buying a mouse trap next town visit!
February 17th: Kiwi Lodge to Hurunui Hut
Cody was still feeling drained of energy so we decided to hike to the nearest hut making it a half day for us.
Most of the TA hikers who had hung their food up were hit pretty hard by mice. Poor Serena had her cheese, wraps, and oats nibbled tbrough. Thankfully our stuff was left alone since there were other easier targets.
It was a mild trail through forests teeming with bird song. Tui's, Robins, fan tails, and a bunch of other birds that we couldn't identify were all around the forest.
We were at our destination hut by 2pm.
Hurunui Hut was very spacious and comfortable. 7 TA hikers including ourselves filled the bunks with room to spare.
So far we haven't seen any mice, unlike the last hut. Hopefully we won't have any trouble tonight.
February 18th: Hurunui Hut to Harpers Pass Bivy
Apart from seeing one mouse in the morning we were undisturbed by rodents. Yay!
Our walk was relatively easy, mostly because we got off the ridiculous TA trail and traveled the dry riverbed. The trail was definitely getting worse the further we traveled. We hardly ever saw any new signs of maitenance. Many trees had fallen making large pile ups that forced hikers to make radical detours around the trail.
Giant fungis
We stopped by the only hot spring on the TA; which was unfortunatly far too hot to sit in. I dunked my feet in just to say I went in a hot spring on the trail.
In truth I was far more afraid of the used underwear than I was about getting meningitis.
We stopped by number 3 hut and chatted with the TA a hikers that were there. We had plans to go onto Harpers Pass bivy in hopes of seeing a kiwi. They were known for hanging around that area.
Trail?
After a rough section of trail we finally made it to the bivy. It was quite a scary looking metal box that was probably designed for Hobbits...or tiny UT fans :) There was no way both of us could fit in it so we set up camp outside.
We cooked dinner on the "porch" which was a mistake. We hadn't realised that how badly the area reeked of human urine until we were halfway through cooking our meal. Then we noticed that the grass was dead all around the porch-gross! Lazy people were just peeing right out of the doorway...and we were sitting in it.
The surrounding area was either on a hill or next to a rushing river. This did not seem like the place that we'd get a kiwi sighting. Somewhat crawled into bed, straining our ears to hear a kiwi whistle.
February 19th: Harpers Bivy to Locke Stream Hut
We never saw a kiwi, but Cody was sure he heard the whistle at 5am. Otherwise it was a quiet place to sleep, no mice or rats came to bother us-whew. It was a nice break from the huts which are generally very noisy at night with rodents scurrying through our stuff.
following a stream bed
We hiked a rough path down old stream beds through mountains and along a river. Between the mud and river crossings it seems like our shoes were never going to get dry.
I assume that this is red lichen growing on the rocks, the color is striking. Most of the rocks here seem to be covered and one thing or another.
Today was a short day though, and we got to the hut around lunchtime. We met up with 5 other TA hikers and settled in right before it started to rain. Hooray for good timing!
The hut book had warning notes all over it about the rats- not good. We all discussed various ways of hanging our food. Cody came up with a new idea of hiding our stuff under a bucket and placing a large river rock on top (I'll tell you now that it worked really well) prepping our food before bed was a bit like being back in Yosemite with the bears. These mice keep you up by scurrying around the hut all night; and they can crawl over your body as you sleep. I miss bears.
That night a mouse crawled on the board right next to our head. Cody has been traumatized since a mouse crawled on his head at Abel Tasman. So he didn't sleep much that night.
February 20th: Locke Stream Hut to Arthurs Pass
We started out the morning with a trail, then somehow it disappeared and we were left with a boulder field in the middle of a wide river bed.
We walked with Nicholas (Fance) and Serena (Canada) for most of it.
There were many river crossings
And lots of "where the hell did that trail marker go!?" We all gave up and just tried to take the easiest path.
Which meant more boulders...
We all said goodbye at the split and the two headed on the TA while Cody and I got off the trail before Arthurs Pass. Neither Cody nor I wanted to spend the next two days on a river bed do we bailed out early for more exciting propositions in the near future.
We planned to get to Christchurch, and after checking out the earthquake damage were going to head to Kaikoura to see whales. We'd catch up with the TA after that and hopefully run into some of our old friends too.
Getting a hitch into Arthurs Pass wasn't easy, especially since we had to do it twice. One to get into the town, and another to go pick up our resupply box outside of town then head back into town for accomidation.
After a lot of hitching around we finally were able to unload at the YHA in Arthurs Pass. Our food that we had retrieved had been picked over by a Kea. Oatmeal, Cliff bars, noodles, had all been eatin into. We were more stoked than upset, we hadn't seen these giant Alpine parrots yet but we're very excited about them.
Once back into town we had our first Kea experience. He was pecking at trash on the side of the road, so majestic.
Still we were excited to see it.
February 21st: Arthurs Pass to Christchurch
This morning a Kea stole the butter sachet from my breakfast plate. Well played sir! add that to the list at the Kea has stolen, like the contents of our bounce box.
After breakfast, we got on a bus and headed towards Christchurch. Leaving the destructive keas behind us.
