We had to move on. No time for tears. Not only did Possi-man seriously need our help. But the Tasty Trekkers were getting away fast. We had to make up time - and quick!
We were bypassing the first hut today and heading straight for Hut No. 2, should be just over this saddle and then over a couple smaller ridges after that.
Woa! It’s getting breezy up here. We’re heading for Highland Creek Hut today. We figure if we can catch up with the Tasty Trekkers there’s safety in numbers. These hills are riddled with crazy people! ;)
There was some heavy ups and downs on this section. Nothing too full-on, but there was some sweat to be spent for sure. Tufty snow grass all the way, and curving up and around ridges and gullies in a maze-like fashion until the hut suddenly popped into view. Phew! Starvin’ I is :)
Bunch of whingers in the hut books - Dissing the quality of the track. DOC do an awesome job of looking after thousands of miles of pathways. Having such an extensive and well maintained hut and track network must be unique in the world surely. Besides, it’s good to keep a few tracks on the more ‘challenging’ end of the scale. Or things would get boring :)
This is apparently the most demanding part of this section. Judging by the comments in the hut books, I think there’s been some work done on the benching in recent years because the track seems in pretty reasonable condition now, and the DOC times on the generous side.A bunch of big fat ascents and descents to do today. Not sure what they add up to, but probably something like 1,500 - 2,000 vertical meters maybe? A lot of sweat was sweated anyway in the numerous ups and downs. A huge ridge walk followed. After faffing around taking pics and video ( as we do ) those Tasty Trekkers were miles off in the distance :) No matter! I can have a wee now with no-one seeing ;) Haha.I just had a quick look at the map, to be honest I don’t think there was as much climbing today than yesterday, probably about 1000m. I think it just felt more because we were going up and down all the time, yesterday was mostly up.One of the many blustery ridges heading down into the valley. Wiggly paths all over the shop! Getting slapped around in the face by wind ;)I do like on this section how much of the track sticks to the ridges, yes there’s a lot of ups & downs, but it’s great walking along the tops for most of the day :)We messed around in the hut for the evening, and made the most of our last night. We’ll miss these awesome huts, it’s final one in our Te Araroa trip :’( Shame there wasn’t a fire, but a good laugh anyway. Great to share it with our Fellow Te Araroa trampers! Next day, we headed out towards Roses Saddle. Next stop Macetown, an old ruined gold rush town. Maybe we’ll find some nuggets…Yeah writing this in retrospect makes me feel sad as it was the start of a whole long list of ‘last things’.. Last Hut, last pass, last mountainous vistas, this was pretty much our last ‘proper’ day on the trail :(Two choices of route again. Over the tops stumbling around on tussock, or straight down the middle of the river. We looked at each other. No choice really! Beautiful blue water, warm sunshine, the chance of striking gold… In we went! You never know, there might be some nuggets washed down in these ‘ere waters. Maybe we can pan for gold at lunchtime. Sweet!Apparently Arrow River got it’s name because it’s flow was ‘as fast as an arrow’. Not today thank god, maybe as fast as someone chucking a tennis ball, definitely not an arrow ;)Beautifully varied colours of rock all the way down this river. Orange, blue, green, silver, yellow, and glittering shimmering ones. Stunning to be wading through. Passing deep patches of turquoise pools made you wanna dive in and swim. So tempting! Even if it might be a bit chilly ;)My toes were starting to go numb during the long sections of the river walking, we were glad of the occasional stream-side stomping when they could defrost for a moment before another dunking.So close, and yet so far… The last chunk of road walking is going to take more days than we’ve got. This is bad. We have to start making some ‘trimming decisions’. It’s gutting as it basically means that I’m not going to get to walk the last chunk of trail on foot :( As much as I want to. And as much time as we’ve spent faffing about doing our own alternative sections of trail, it still feels weird to be missing out a bit on what is essentially supposed to be a continuous line route. But I guess we’ve done some hardcore stuff to replace it. It takes a little edge off the excitement, but even so, we’ve done our 6th months of walking and adventuring North to South I guess, which is pretty satisfying! I don’t mind road walking that much. But we’re out of time and that’s the bugger.
Mixed feelings about getting to Bluff :(
I’ve been trying to ignore my increasingly painful toothache since Mt Cook, but it doesn’t seem to be going away.. We’re having a couple of days off in Queenstown to catch up on bloggin’, so I thought it’d be best to pay a visit to the dentist. As I had expected my poor tooth had died and needed root canal treatment :( When the dentist drilled into it he said - “Erghh, this is a smelly one!” Not exactly comforting to hear, I think the root was in a advanced state to decay..
The good news is it’s drilled, cleaned, and temporarily patched up until I get back to the UK. Bad news is I’m on antibiotics, no more booze! This is going to be tough, really tough, maybe the toughest challenge so far ;)
