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31km, 9.5 hours
Today was an interesting day, it felt long, but at the same time it also felt short. I decided today I will just take my time and try and rest a bit as I walked but we still had about 28 to 30kms to hike and the DOC sign said 10 hours. When you see 10 hours in front of you it makes you think it's a big day. I'd rather just know the kilometers and if it turns out 10 hours then so be it. I'm sure there's some psychological reason behind that. We were all a little excited today because there were natural hot pools, the Hurunui hot springs, along the way that we were going to stop off at and have a soak in.
I absolutely loved the first part of the day. Actually the second first part of the day, the first is always the dreaded toilet. Hope Kiwi Hut toilet was a sandfly breeding ground. The sign on the door was not wrong.
It was overcast and involved walking up through fields of grass out in the open. I think it just makes me feel free when you've got mountains either side of you but you're in this open valley so you don't feel closed in and you can look up to the mountain tops as you walk. We all set off at different times this morning and all kind of walked on our own which was great. I needed a day to just walk on my own and recharge. I absolutely love it being around people all the time but unlike at home you can't just go home of an evening or duck to your room, you are with people constantly. You don't even get to change in a room, it's just in the open hut so privacy is a thing of the past. It's been really fascinating hearing about the difference between Kiwi/Aus culture and that of European countries. Both the boys and Conny have noticed how we always go outside to change or apologise for changing or just being in our underwear. Where they're like, we don't care, it's just normal to get changed in front of other people. Or skinny dip or go topless but here we tell them that if you did that at a normal beach you'd probably be done for indecent exposure. All of them have noted it in one of their diary entries that's how intrigued they are by the whole thing.
In my own time today I walked and I sung and I sung and I sung. Reminded me a bit of days on the Camino just walking and singing except this time the scenery was beautiful tall trees in the bush and I'm carrying 6 days food instead of just a baguette and stick of chorizo. I'm always so worried when i walk and sing that someone will come up behind me and i don't notice. This happened in the Red Hills day of the Richmond Ranges where I believe I may have been rapping to Eminem when Brent was close enough to hear me. I apologized when I noticed far too late but he said he liked it and was bopping along, haha.
I caught up with Chris and walked with him for a fair bit before reaching Hurunui Hut for lunch. It's always really nice life conversation and chat about jobs or life, family and taking opportunities.
A nice break at Hurunui Hut for lunch. I'm so enjoying getting to pass through all these huts. They're all so different but have so much character. Plus you check the hut book to see where your friends are and if they've put any comments in. It's almost like the only form of social media on the trail. It's the only way you can communicate because none of us have phone service. I am absolutely loving that part! Brent and David have been absolutely acing it with their comments now after us telling them that 'great hut', 'long Day' and 'beautiful' is getting boring to read. We wanted motivational quotes or jokes for us as we arrive at each hut.
About 5 km after the Hurunui Hut we made it to the hot pools. They were suprisingly beautiful. They weren't down in the river bed which I had imagined. They were up a bit, almost perched on a ledge in a stream looking out over the river. It was small too just enough room for us 4. As we got undressed the sandflies were the worst I had seen. They were swarming. I ran and hoped straight in. I don't know what I was thinking the water would be like but it was so hot like, boiling hot and it just stung, every cut, every scrape, every sandfly bite that I had. I have a lot!
I got used to the temperature for a bit but the water was pretty manky when stirred up but it was nothing like the hotpool, Conor, Murray, Steve, Nicola and I spent digging out in mud with our hands at cedar flats hur one tramp. That was foul. I'm so thankful this was nothing like it. After a while, my body was cooking, it was too hot my skin was all turning red so I raced back down the hill in my undies trying to outrun the sandflies to the river and jumped in. Not sure what was worse jumping in to a boiling hot bath or into an icey river. Didn't last a minute in the river and so got out and then just laid in the sun on the rocks trying to dry off. It was probably only 15 minutes but it felt like forever. It was just so nice relaxing in the sun, in the quiet. A change from the last two weeks of just go, go, go, go.
I made sure today that in my walk, I wanted to really be present and notice a lot of things and appreciate the places I was walking through and as i did it just made me feel really thankful that i'm able to be able to do this hike and feel so good while I'm doing it. So, it was a day of walking and being appreciative of everything right down to the flowers. I stopped and I picked flowers and for the morning I had a few daisies tucked in my chest strap for a bit and then at lunch time, they were looking a bit sad so I subbed them out for these beautiful little pink flower's that have started to pop up in this section. It meant while I was looking down at where I was putting my feet, I could see flowers all day. I even stopped to blow out a few big dandelions. I just liked today and I think because of the last weeks having been so full/ dangerous/
You're anticipating something going wrong that this next section feels kind of like you can relax. The worst that could happen is I trip over or I fall down a bank so there's a different safety element to this one. Less stressful i would say.
We got to Hurunui No. 3 hut just before five, which was really good. The sky cleared and the sun was still burning strong. It was blue sky. It's a lovely old hut too and we thought we'd have a few more people in the hut from where we stayed last night but they've gone on to the next one. So, it's just the four of us. Chris Conny, Laura, and I in the old old timber hut with heaps of bunks but the bunks are stacked three high. It's quiet and it's nice when you all know each other too so you can just be calm and chilled and there's not constant conversation.
I smelt a bit of sulfur from the hot pool and of course the wonderful sweat smell and because there was so much sunlight and we were here early, I ended up walking a little bit further, back down to the Hurunui River. Firstly, I can't believe i'm on the Hurunui river again after I was involved in so much work around it a few years ago and now here I am camping alongside it and sitting beside it as I write this. I've just had an ice bath in it. i walked down to the river and a family of deer and a stag got scared away and have run off, but I thought it's like the perfect location to jump in the water and clean myself and skinny dip. Like who gets to skinny dip that often these days?!. There's no one around it's pretty perfect. I then washed my clothes and have them all laying out on the rocks. I'm lying on the rocks too, having a cheapo style hot rock massage while I dry off in the sun looking back down the valley at the mountains, where I've come from. it's a pretty cool, satisfying feeling.
My biggest decision now would be what do i have for dinner? I have mashed potato which is simple but boring.I've tried to be a bit creative in this resupply box and i've got a red thai curry soup that i'm going to mix in with some two minute noodles and have a bit of a Thai dinner. So i might have that tonight. The problem is, it's that you always need to eat the heaviest stuff first. And packet soups are the lightest. So it's like do I save it for last or do I have it on a day that i'm really going to enjoy it?
I feel so lucky to have found a really cool kind of crew to hike with. We do it individually but it's really nice to to meet up and to all be looking out for one another and still be independent.
you have trust that everyone can do it on their own so it's not like you're having to make sure that everyone's okay you know that they're going to be okay or if they don't turn up at the hut, you know that something's gone wrong. But it's just people just really open and honest and you can share about your life, they about theirs and it's, it's pretty special. Getting to know different people that you would never meet if it wasn't for this hike so that's cool in itself. All right, i might leave it there and get back to lying peacefully in the sun.
Ren x
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