January 27th: Zero day Havelock
Havelock turned out to be a very artsy little town
We toured the gallery
Saw a really neat museum of taxidermy and sculpture animals.
The Blue Moon backpackers was filled with backpackers from the TA. You'd think they'd give us a better discount for filling up their hotel.
I had the brilliant idea to shed some weight from our packs and mail anything unnecessary to the next town. We were going to carry 8 days of food in a high alpine section so any weight saved would be a blessing for the next trek. After weighing the package we found that between us we had shed 15lb! Losing weight never felt so good. We made one sketchy call and shipped our sleeping pads but kept the tent. Our reasoning was that we'd be in huts most of the time and would only use the tent in emergencies. Hopefully we won't miss them too much!
January 28th: Havelock to Captain hut (Rat avenue)
We waved the majority of the hikers off in the morning as I continued writing my last blog entry. We decided to hitch the 10 miles of windy narrow HWY rather than walk it to the start of the track.
Once out of the hostel and on the road we stood for a couple of hours before finally getting a hitch. Luckily it was the best hitch we could have gotten. Our ride happened to live just a few kilometers down the dirt road that lead up to the Pelorus River track. On the ride up she cautioned us to beware while hiking up to the trailhead. Apparently there were cult members that lived all around the trailhead. She even pointed one of the members out to us. She said "whatever you do don't go up to the last gate by the trailhead. The owner was one of the oldest cult members" The cult (she claimed) was responsible for bringing meth into the area. We thanked her for the ride and continued up the road; refusing any other ride offered to us- just in case they were cult members. After an hour of baking on the dirt road, Ken and Cam pulled up riding with none other than the very person our hitch had warned us about. Cody quickly refused the ride, but I objected. With 4 of us we could overpower him easily, besides Ken and Cam had no idea they had accepted a ride from a cult member...so into the meth mobile we went. I asked him a few questions that might make him reveal that he was actually apart of the cult. Unfortunatly he didn't crack. But thankfully, he did drop us off at the trail head without trying to convert us. Once out of the vehicle we told Ken and Cam about who they were in the car with. We spent the next part of the track debating about the truth of what we had been told about cults and meth dealings.
On the way to the hut we found a beautiful swimming hole. But we're very quickly chased off by millions of sand flies.
At the hut Peter confirmed at least the meth side of our story. Apparently he had gotten a ride up the trailhead by a local who complained that last year's earthquake could have taken out the meth lab. Half the story was confirmed! And we weren't going to wait around to see if the other half was true.
While hanging out at the hut we saw several mice scurrying through the grass around the hut...hmmm. Not a good sign to see mice during the day. Someone had also written "Mouse House" on the door of the hut. No relief outside or in, we were in for a fun night.
Cody and I had to sleep in our tents because the bunks in the hut were too small to fit 2 and we had to share a down quilt to sleep with. We had sent our sleeping pads ahead to save weight for this long section thinking that we could stay in the huts. Well we thought wrong but both of us made due by pitching the tent outside and shoving a bunk mattress into the tent. Lesson learned, sometimes you can't skimp on everything to save weight! Although we were enjoying our lighter than normal packs; between Cody and I we had dropped 15lbs worth.
That night we woke up to screams, not terrified screams but angry screams. Gill had left food in his tent and a mouse had chewed a hole and was stuck inside. Cody and I giggled, happy that we had gone into "bear proof mode" and all our food was in a mouse proof box away from the tent. We lay awake listening to everyone around us hitting the sides of their tents, and Gill yelling every now and again because rats were crawling all over his tent. Apart from running into our tent lines and strumming them like guitar strings we were left alone by the rodents.
That morning We found out that Ken and Cam had a hole in their tent because of an empty chocolate wrapper that was left inside. Gill had holes and had been bothered non stop because he didn't know about the mouse proof box and had kept all his food inside his tent. But the worst was poor Marylyn, a French TA hiker who had left a plastic water container and her water filter outside. The mice had chewed holes in both making them useless for the rest of her trip. Quite devastating considering how crucial filtering water is while your traveling!
We all decided to get the hell out of Pelorus River and into the high alpine Richmond Range.
January 29th: Captain Hut to Hacket Hut
Our party split off into a few different groups. There were two routes to get to the next hut, one high (going up to 1000 meters) and one lower ( going up to 600 meters) The lower trail was the old TA route and the higher was the new one. So far the trail had been relatively good for TA standards, but from experience we know how quickly the conditions can change while walking the TA. Gill and Cody wanted to take the low route which might be faster since we weren't going to climb as high. Ken, Cam, and Peter decided to take the newer high route that afforded nice views and had a large hut (with flushing toilets) on top. In hindsight had I known about the flushing toilets I would have pushed more for the new route- nice things like flush toilettes mean nice trails that lead up to them. Cody, Gill and I separated and took the low route- which ended up being a rough goat track that sidled along a mountain the whole time.
Giant turned over tree
For those who don't know "sideling" is a rough guideline, usually no wider than a single foot that sidles the side of a mountain instead of the ridge. Sideling is slow going, scrambling over trees, inching our way passed washed out sections, and tip toeing on very fragile "trail" that tends to crumble under foot. It was at this point that I was starting to get mad, this could have been a nice trail but the people who made it hadn't put in the effort, nor had they maintained it. The section coming up was supposed to have a lot of high alpine sidling. Which I wasn't too keen on, also it was supposed to be incredibly steep and very slow going. Cody's knees were not happy with this trail and neither were mine. Also with bad weather forecasted for the time we were to be in the high country that pretty much sealed the deal for us both- We decided to skip the upcoming Richmond Track; so in a way it was good that we had done the old TA trail because we had a taste of what it would be like to "sidle" for a whole day. We had decided it wasn't worth the risk of injury.
The old trail finally joined up with the new one and everything instantly improved al the way to Hackett Hut.
As if to confirm our choice we ran into a NOBO (North bound) TA hiker named Lucas who had just done the Richmond track. We asked him if they were his favourite section of the trail, after some thought he answered "No, Waiu was my favourite part. The Richmond's are very steep and challenging but not the most beautiful." Most of the time they are covered in clouds so a nice view from the top is impossible. Lucas was on his way out, and was making his way over to the Abel Tasman Track. That was name we'd heard over and over again. It was supposed to be very beautiful, and actually enjoyable since it was a Great Walk. Cody and I were irritated that we had missed so many good sights because we had stuck closely to the TA on the North Island. Lucas had described his hike of the TA on the South Island which included a lot of detours to interesting spots areas that were not a part of the trail. We decided we wanted to change the way we hiked and allow time for detours to see some of the other natural wonders that weren't on the TA trail. Cody and I hadn't much time to stay in New Zealand and we wanted to see more than just the TA since it had become clear to us that most of the cool stuff that NZ had to offer wasn't actually on the TA trail. New plan: We were going to hike most of the TA trail but use it like a highway to other places and get off every now and then to visit other areas. It was a relief, both of us were ready for a change. We would start off by detouring to Abel Tasman to walk an easy 36km beautiful trail by the beach.
Havelock turned out to be a very artsy little town
We toured the gallery
Saw a really neat museum of taxidermy and sculpture animals.
Having an underwater experience inside
Back in the forest again
The Blue Moon backpackers was filled with backpackers from the TA. You'd think they'd give us a better discount for filling up their hotel.
Dinner time
Ken and Cam packing up for the next trip
Gil and his ridiculous box from the post office
I had the brilliant idea to shed some weight from our packs and mail anything unnecessary to the next town. We were going to carry 8 days of food in a high alpine section so any weight saved would be a blessing for the next trek. After weighing the package we found that between us we had shed 15lb! Losing weight never felt so good. We made one sketchy call and shipped our sleeping pads but kept the tent. Our reasoning was that we'd be in huts most of the time and would only use the tent in emergencies. Hopefully we won't miss them too much!
That's what 8 days worth of food looks like for one person
January 28th: Havelock to Captain hut (Rat avenue)
We waved the majority of the hikers off in the morning as I continued writing my last blog entry. We decided to hitch the 10 miles of windy narrow HWY rather than walk it to the start of the track.
Once out of the hostel and on the road we stood for a couple of hours before finally getting a hitch. Luckily it was the best hitch we could have gotten. Our ride happened to live just a few kilometers down the dirt road that lead up to the Pelorus River track. On the ride up she cautioned us to beware while hiking up to the trailhead. Apparently there were cult members that lived all around the trailhead. She even pointed one of the members out to us. She said "whatever you do don't go up to the last gate by the trailhead. The owner was one of the oldest cult members" The cult (she claimed) was responsible for bringing meth into the area. We thanked her for the ride and continued up the road; refusing any other ride offered to us- just in case they were cult members. After an hour of baking on the dirt road, Ken and Cam pulled up riding with none other than the very person our hitch had warned us about. Cody quickly refused the ride, but I objected. With 4 of us we could overpower him easily, besides Ken and Cam had no idea they had accepted a ride from a cult member...so into the meth mobile we went. I asked him a few questions that might make him reveal that he was actually apart of the cult. Unfortunatly he didn't crack. But thankfully, he did drop us off at the trail head without trying to convert us. Once out of the vehicle we told Ken and Cam about who they were in the car with. We spent the next part of the track debating about the truth of what we had been told about cults and meth dealings.
On the way to the hut we found a beautiful swimming hole. But we're very quickly chased off by millions of sand flies.
At the hut Peter confirmed at least the meth side of our story. Apparently he had gotten a ride up the trailhead by a local who complained that last year's earthquake could have taken out the meth lab. Half the story was confirmed! And we weren't going to wait around to see if the other half was true.
While hanging out at the hut we saw several mice scurrying through the grass around the hut...hmmm. Not a good sign to see mice during the day. Someone had also written "Mouse House" on the door of the hut. No relief outside or in, we were in for a fun night.
Cody and I had to sleep in our tents because the bunks in the hut were too small to fit 2 and we had to share a down quilt to sleep with. We had sent our sleeping pads ahead to save weight for this long section thinking that we could stay in the huts. Well we thought wrong but both of us made due by pitching the tent outside and shoving a bunk mattress into the tent. Lesson learned, sometimes you can't skimp on everything to save weight! Although we were enjoying our lighter than normal packs; between Cody and I we had dropped 15lbs worth.
That night we woke up to screams, not terrified screams but angry screams. Gill had left food in his tent and a mouse had chewed a hole and was stuck inside. Cody and I giggled, happy that we had gone into "bear proof mode" and all our food was in a mouse proof box away from the tent. We lay awake listening to everyone around us hitting the sides of their tents, and Gill yelling every now and again because rats were crawling all over his tent. Apart from running into our tent lines and strumming them like guitar strings we were left alone by the rodents.
That morning We found out that Ken and Cam had a hole in their tent because of an empty chocolate wrapper that was left inside. Gill had holes and had been bothered non stop because he didn't know about the mouse proof box and had kept all his food inside his tent. But the worst was poor Marylyn, a French TA hiker who had left a plastic water container and her water filter outside. The mice had chewed holes in both making them useless for the rest of her trip. Quite devastating considering how crucial filtering water is while your traveling!
We all decided to get the hell out of Pelorus River and into the high alpine Richmond Range.
January 29th: Captain Hut to Hacket Hut
Our party split off into a few different groups. There were two routes to get to the next hut, one high (going up to 1000 meters) and one lower ( going up to 600 meters) The lower trail was the old TA route and the higher was the new one. So far the trail had been relatively good for TA standards, but from experience we know how quickly the conditions can change while walking the TA. Gill and Cody wanted to take the low route which might be faster since we weren't going to climb as high. Ken, Cam, and Peter decided to take the newer high route that afforded nice views and had a large hut (with flushing toilets) on top. In hindsight had I known about the flushing toilets I would have pushed more for the new route- nice things like flush toilettes mean nice trails that lead up to them. Cody, Gill and I separated and took the low route- which ended up being a rough goat track that sidled along a mountain the whole time.
More swing bridges
They have cicadas here just like back home but miniature in size
For those who don't know "sideling" is a rough guideline, usually no wider than a single foot that sidles the side of a mountain instead of the ridge. Sideling is slow going, scrambling over trees, inching our way passed washed out sections, and tip toeing on very fragile "trail" that tends to crumble under foot. It was at this point that I was starting to get mad, this could have been a nice trail but the people who made it hadn't put in the effort, nor had they maintained it. The section coming up was supposed to have a lot of high alpine sidling. Which I wasn't too keen on, also it was supposed to be incredibly steep and very slow going. Cody's knees were not happy with this trail and neither were mine. Also with bad weather forecasted for the time we were to be in the high country that pretty much sealed the deal for us both- We decided to skip the upcoming Richmond Track; so in a way it was good that we had done the old TA trail because we had a taste of what it would be like to "sidle" for a whole day. We had decided it wasn't worth the risk of injury.
The old trail finally joined up with the new one and everything instantly improved al the way to Hackett Hut.
As if to confirm our choice we ran into a NOBO (North bound) TA hiker named Lucas who had just done the Richmond track. We asked him if they were his favourite section of the trail, after some thought he answered "No, Waiu was my favourite part. The Richmond's are very steep and challenging but not the most beautiful." Most of the time they are covered in clouds so a nice view from the top is impossible. Lucas was on his way out, and was making his way over to the Abel Tasman Track. That was name we'd heard over and over again. It was supposed to be very beautiful, and actually enjoyable since it was a Great Walk. Cody and I were irritated that we had missed so many good sights because we had stuck closely to the TA on the North Island. Lucas had described his hike of the TA on the South Island which included a lot of detours to interesting spots areas that were not a part of the trail. We decided we wanted to change the way we hiked and allow time for detours to see some of the other natural wonders that weren't on the TA trail. Cody and I hadn't much time to stay in New Zealand and we wanted to see more than just the TA since it had become clear to us that most of the cool stuff that NZ had to offer wasn't actually on the TA trail. New plan: We were going to hike most of the TA trail but use it like a highway to other places and get off every now and then to visit other areas. It was a relief, both of us were ready for a change. We would start off by detouring to Abel Tasman to walk an easy 36km beautiful trail by the beach.
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