Here we are raring to go. Our first night would be spent at the Okaka Hut...and our chap cheerfully informed us that we would almost certainly do it faster than the 9 hours stated on the sign. Bonus!
'Run forest run'
The first 45 min section was nice and flat and headed through some nice native podocarp forest.
We then dropped down a mass of supremely steep steps to the beach and joined the track that previous to this last winter would have been used to drive us to a closer entry point for the walk. Huge storms a few months ago had washed most of it away.
Just a few metal posts left of it here, but a spectacular view with a rainbow rising up behind the ridge we aimed to be on by the end of the day.
The Okaka hut is located just in the first major dip of the ridge on the right hand side of this piccy.
Note we had whipped off most of our clothes by this point as it was fairly boiling in the sun. We had also bought ourselves some waterproof 'gators' for the walk, and they really helped as the ground underfoot was very wet in places and it stopped me smearing mud all the way up my inside legs.
The first swing bridge. This one was quite a nice suspension beast that could apparently support 10 people. Nice waving from Clairy.
Fisherman's huts.
Huge flax plants.
The beach was strewn with lots of lovely driftwood.
'Yeah...we're not even that sweaty yet'
Clairy tempting fate...possibly waiting for me to fall in.
See what I mean. Bloody loads of it.
Nice textures where the freshwater meets the sand.
Stoney creek. Clairy being very brave on the bouncy swing bridges. Sadly these ones only allowed one person at a time, so I couldn't jump up and down and scare her more.
The silhouetted trees looked quite spooky in the dull light as the cloud started to come over.
We passed a hunters hut with this promising message. I walked quickly passed the window.
'Oh hi!' After just under 2 hours we reached Track Burn where the trek used to begin. It had been very pleasant so far though, mainly along the beach and with the rain still holding off. You can see the Canadian girls behind me had overtaken us, and competitive as I am, I realised we were no match for them. They had done 12 of New Zealand's great walk in the 3 weeks before this.
Lots of lovely tree ferns.
Looking down from the coastal terrace.
Looking back across Te Waewae bay toward Southland and the area where we had stayed the previous night.
Flat creek swing bridge, 50 metres up.
And Clairy didn't even stop to have a 'moment'. What a brave girl.
We stopped for a banana break before the start of the climb that would be the rest of our days walking.
Check out the beautiful girl. Three hours in and she's not even sweating.
As we started up through the beach forest there were some beautiful mossy mounds. Clairy was beside herself, and would continue to be, as the scenery was in general very damp and moss-based.
'Hold that stomach in...Oh sorry, you are already.' This was the start of the slightly controversial quite massive use of boardwalks on the trek. Brian, a very nice kiwi chap who started the walk with us wasn't so sure that they were a good idea. He pointed out that although they do protect some wildlife around where the alternative soggy path might be, a lot of plants and trees are ripped up to put them in, and they require a huge amount of maintenance, probably only lasting for 10 years at the most. There was an incredible amount of them on the walk, and the labour to build them must have been huge. We later found out that they were mostly built in 3 metre sections by volunteers in the local town Tuatapere and then dropped in by helicopter!
Clairy being even more brave on another swing bridge.
Beautiful green forest. It had started raining by now, but we were under so much cover that we didn't really notice it.
The final bridge had this billy can so that you could fill your water bottles from the stream before heading towards the final mahoosive climb of the day.
Fern heaven.
My new boots, purchased just the day before had started rubbing by this point and I had the beginnings of vicious blister. I had considered wearing them in bed to double my possible wearing in time, but I'm not sure it would have made much difference. I think Clairy might have got worried that I was going to be a bit of a liability at this point as I had also started muttering about my knee. I had been secretly rather nervous about it after it nearly gave up on me when we climbed the fox glacier. It was a very strange internal pain, that really only started to be a problem when climbing up steps. I suggested we stop for lunch so give it a bit of a rest.
Our lunch! Our severely limited packing regime allowed us to squash in 18 brown rolls, 3 totally unnecessarily enormous flavoured cheeses and 2 boxes of alfalfa sprouts. Deluxe luncheon on the go. It totally did the job though.
Whilst muchoen on our luncheon, we were visited by a pair of Kakas, the forest parrot we had photographed in protective captivity a couple of days earlier trying to take its cage apart one nut at a time.
They squawked at us hopefully, but there was no way I was sharing any of my hard earned food.
Mossy-lichen.
After lunch, my knee felt a lot better, and it needed to, as the next 4 hours would turn out to be probably the toughest trek of our lives. In short spurts at the beginning the path continued to get steeper and steeper. Eventually though it was just hard uphill graft. The last 4 km went up nearly a 800m vertically and we were literally dragging ourselves up on all fours grabbing all the gnarly tree roots we could get our hands on. At various points my knee totally gave way, and I couldn't put any weight on it at all, having to use my arms to pull me up on that side. Clairy did amazingly well and her calves were on the point of seizing when we finally broke over the last brow.
We were greeted with the lovely sight of the Okaka hut in the distance.
The stunted beach trees at this altitude were fascinating.
'I feckin made it!'
'If I stop...I'll never move again'
Beautiful beardy lichen.
It was wet and really quite chilly up the top, so we got our waterproofs back out for the first time that day.
Clairy was very pleased to have made it.
And the views were totally stunning from Stag Point. Our start point for the day had been near the little section poking out into the bay in the middle of the picture.
Looking North along the ridge.
Totally knackered, but well chuffed with ourselves.
The Okaka hut. We had done the hard bit but still had nearly an hour of mainly wooden steps and boardwalk (my knees were dreading it) up to the ridge above the hut before we could get a hot drink inside us and relax.
Bloody gorgeous.
The difference between the forest at the varying altitudes was enormous.
And Clairy loved the gnarly enchantment at the top.
We reached the optional 45 minute loop track at the top of the ridge above the hut, just as the wind really picked up and the clouds came in. The visibility was practically nil. We had been advised that we should make sure we do the loop before we get settled in front of the fire, as we were unlikely to afterwards and it was supposed to have fabulous views on both sides of the ridge. We were both farely glad then that the weather pretty much removed any point in doing it after the gruelling slog that we had just completed.
Kathy the hugely welcoming lodge warden met us at the hut and got us settled straight away in front of a roaring gas fire, and our wet clothes all drying above it. We were the last to arrive, but had still made it in really good time, and as Brian said 'Its not a race is it!'...I think we were all a tiny bit competitive, but I was definitely glad that we had made it in one piece and felt a genuine sense of accomplishment at us both getting up that hill.
1 comment:
What, exactly, is a 'moment'? Yes, it looks absolutely stunning but tough. But doesn't that make it all worthwhile? Lovely pictures; we could really imagine that trek, we did one with Chris and Sue in SA. Just all day and more. Wonderful xx
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