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27.3km 9 hours
Let's start with my greatest achievement today. Taking the DOC timing guidelines for the day it should have taken 14-15 hours. I did it in 9. Moreover the last section from Lower Wairaki hut to Telford camp should have taken 8hrs, i got there in 3. I feel a little smug and proud and fit, that is all.
Now let's get back to the start of the day. It was freezing yet again. It was a beautiful crisp clear morning but boy was it cold. I remember Sam saying to me at Royal Hut when there was frost around 'Be bold start cold' rather than setting off in all your warm layers because you'll have to stop and take them off after 10mins hiking. I tried today but it was too cold! In fact I was cold most of the day in a never ending Tarawira Forest which had that really cold damp feel to it.
The forest is stunning don't get me wrong but after 5km of it, I was over it and looking for a way out. It was muddy, it was up and down slippery banks, over slippery mossy roots. It was also through the most lushest of green Fern gardens. But what I've decided I need is open spaces or at least views because this was sending me crazy, to a point i thought I was going to panic and never be free from it. Maybe I finally am going crazy?!?
I forced myself to get to the 6km mark (what would I do without my Garmin!?) to stop for a drink and check the map app to see how far I had to go to the first hut. 9km. Ugh! I then checked the topo map to see if I could bush bash my way out into a tussocky valley again below the bush line and just walk in that making my own way. That's when i noticed i was in the middle of this forest and i had an entire day of it ahead of me. I tried to get myself out of the slump and appreciate this forest but every tree and fern looked damn near the same. Green!
It was not a good day mentally for me especially after such a great day yesterday, I was so over this forest. Having a sore foot also meant that every step had to be placed with such care in case I was to slip and hurt it more. I just count my lucky stars that it hasn't been raining the last few days otherwise these long boggy mud sections would have been a hundred times worse!
After 5 hours of constant checks of my location to give me some hope of an end, I crossed the river and reached Lower Wairaki hut. All the others were there chatty having lunch and i just wanted to be transported out of this forest. How were they enjoying this?!
After recomposing myself in the huts and chatting to 2 kiwi girls and their 2 dogs, who had just been tramping for 7 days i set off. Their trip sounded epic! I keep remembering when you live in NZ you can do these things so easily.
The DOC sign said 8 hours to Telford campsite which is literally not a campsite just a place to set up tent in the foothills of a mountain. Surely it can't be 8 hours i thought! It's only 12km!! I check the FarOut App at other hikers comments and the one I took humour in the most was 'takes 3-5 would only take 8 if you were a hobbit blindfolded walking backwards'. I knew i had a mountain to summit in this stretch too but it was the uphill that got me excited again. I was good to go! It didn't bother me that it was steep maybe it's psychological that if you're doing some solid climb and hiking there's going to be a reward vs just ambling through a boring silent forest.
Sure enough I reached the top and the views were spectacular. You could see all the way to Bluff and then Stewart Island. Before us was our next 5 days. Our last 5 days! Which was a little saddening to see it before us. Behind us were mountains which made me realise that this mountain we were on is the last of our mountain climbs. The last mountain in all the mountain ranges of the South Island. We were standing at our last peak. We took a family photo holding hands. Not literally just an in joke from one of the first pics we took together an optical illusion made it look like us 3 girls were holding hands so now we all do it.
In my head i did like a very very quick fly over of all the mountains I'd climbed over from the top of the South island to where i was now. Far out I've been through some ranges and epic places! On foot.
We had phone reception briefly at the top of the mountain and I remembered in Twizel the NoBoers i met telling me to stay at Birchwood Station and when in phone range call them to arrange a free shuttle to take us to the local tavern and four square. Laura gave Birchwood a call and we're all booked in to stay at the hut on their farm (with hot showers!) And at 430pm Steve the shuttle driver is picking us up for our last resupply and more importantly I'll be devouring another 2litres of chocolate milk from the Four Square before he takes us to dinner at the Tavern.
I tell you the last 3km down of the mountain was fueled by the thought of every possible dinner option a local country tavern could have. Should I get steak? Lamb? Pizza? A pasta?. Would i choose veggies or salad. What do i feel like for dessert?
I made it to the camp site and I'd say it's lovely but honestly i have never been in a place with more sandflies in my whole entire life! Luckily for some reason they are swarming around the boys and Ivan's tent and not mine so I'm semi ok. We've nicknamed the sandflies 'Kevins' because that's almost the Austrian equivalent to a 'Karen'.
We've all congregated around mine and Ivan's tents for dinner. Its probably my favorite part of the day when we all cook and eat our meals. We're all so sick and tired of our food options now and so much so for me I went with porridge for dinner cos I couldn't stomach anything else.
On a more random note, today while listening to a podcast they were talking about an Aussie footballer who only drinks milk instead of water after matches. Then someone phoned in to the show and said his son runs marathons and after every marathon he downs a large bottle of chocolate milk as it's the fastest way to get sugar and fat into you. So maybe there is some scientific reasoning behind why all i want off trail is chocolate milk. I'd never drink this much at home!!
I'm in my tent now and the sandflies are all around it. They are the most annoying horrible little things in the world. I've just spent a good 5 minutes spot killing every one that's on the inside. It sounds like it's spitting rain but it's seriously just the sandflies flying into my tent.
Ren x
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