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33km, 9.5 hours
Thank goodness for a gentle incline all day and no steep hills or summits. Instead those and the sun were swapped out for clouds, pouring rain and a very wet and muddy track. All 33 kilometers of it.
Unfortunately Laura's ankle which had been playing up for the past week was far too swollen and sore for her to continue on the Waiau Pass section from St Arnaud so she made the decision to head to Nelson and seek medical attention and rest it a week. I'm hoping she is able to meet us in Hanmer Springs in a week and continue on the TA.
Yesterday, day 15, was a zero day. The first rest day in 2 weeks. I did nothing all day except over eat at breakfast, diary write and drink too many cups of coffee, including a decaf affogatto at 8pm that turned out to not be decaf at all and so I was wide awake to see the clock turn 2am.
The alarm was set for 6 and it was time to repack a full pack having resupplied here for the next section. It was different setting off this morning without Laura. Instead i set off with Conny and Jennie for a big day of walking.
The Waiau Pass section must be done in good weather as there are two very steep passes, Travers and Waiau. The weather forecast wasn't looking good for the first couple of days but rather than wait it out we decided to just carry a couple of extra days food with us in case we have to wait it out in the huts in the pass. If we can make it to Blue Lake Hut which we hope to do tomorrow, there is a DOC hut warden there who will be able to provide us with another forecast.
It was actually pleasant hiking in the rain today. It wasn't cold luckily despite the temps saying a max of 12.
We powered on for 25 kilometers, around Lake Rotoiti, through rich green mossy bush alongside a few fast flowing rivers all the way to John Tait hut before we could shelter from the rain and eat lunch. There we ran into Doctors, Steve and Tom from the Netherlands. One coincidentally a cast specialist the other an emergency physician who believes he broke his finger today. He joked he needed a cast to which I piped up, 'ive got one!!' and then asked whether they'd amputate mine but instead got the same doctor advice that it will always have a bend and will take months before I can regain my grip. Ugh.
But what a laugh we had with them. We'd also collected Chris an electrical engineer from Germany along the way too. I love gathering people up!
Arriving at Upper traverse hut was like stepping out of the forest into a fairy tale. Due to low cloud all day we couldn't see much but here it opened up to a beautiful flowing stream, all these orange wildflowers and towering mountain peaks even with chunks of snow still on them.
At the end of every day we high five so Conny and I do our high five and then we look through the window of the hut and the first person we see was Tim, my power pole guy! We had lost him in the Richmond Ranges and had kept asking other hikers how he was doing. We were finally reunited! We walk in and the fires already on, so we could dry our wet, smelly clothes. The hut was quite full of people. The most we've had. But in amongst it were familiar faces and then others, people we had been told about by other TA hikers. The 15 of us all sat around the tables chatting over dinners and speaking of our distaste for freezedried meals.
I open the hut intentions book to sign and we always look to see when people we know have passed through. David, had been through yesterday having done the same 33km day we had done today. His comment 'long day but beautiful'. And that sealed it for Conny and I, if David had said it was long, it was long!.
Conny asked me quietly in the hut if I think it would be alright to ask our new doctor friends about her burns. I said why not. And so she's finally got two doctors opinions that the second degree burns look ok and that our first aid provided including the honey was the best thing we could have done given the circumstances. Conny showing them her burn on her upper thigh then said 'and the two on my bum...' before they both went jokingly, covering their eyes 'whoah whoah whoah, that's enough'. We laughed.
Jennie, Conny, Chris and I are all sleeping along side each other on the top bunk of the hut. The three of us girls putting our aching legs up on the ceiling to let the blood drain, all in fits of laughter. Why is it that when you can't laugh (because others are sleeping below) it just makes you want to laugh more. We felt like girls all giggly on a school camp after being told lights out. Chris is already regretting being sucked into our group by default.
I've had great chats with Chris who has taken 6 months off and has travelled to Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and India before coming to NZ. We've had lots to talk about mainly the fun times you have as a tourist on an overnight local bus in Kenya.
Tomorrow we're praying for good weather over the Pass and I'm too scared to look at the elevations so i think I'll just go into this one blindly and take it all as it comes.
Ren x
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