Kristopher's New Zealand Trip

This blog post is about the most epic of hikes that we have completed sofar. It wasn't the most epic for the scenery, although that was really good. Itwas physically challenging and mentally challenging. On a normal weathercondition this wouldn't have been as challenging but because 3 of the 5 days ofhiking were in rain and we were on the mountain, it became really epic. Afterraining a large amount on our first day where we only had to walk an hour wemade it to the first cabin, Cold-water. Thankfully we got these hut passes for60 bucks so we could stay in the huts. If not we would not have been able to dothe hut. We spent the rest of the day chilling out in the hut. The next morningwe left early. I put on my gators (if you don't know what that is, it’s awater/mud guard for your lower-legs and boot holes) and was really glad I did.The trail was really muddy. The only sure place you could step was on a rock ora root or a log. We walked for about 4 hours until the John Tait hut where wehad lunch. The trail all along the way had a ton of mountain creeks that hadflared up into streams that were a little more difficult to cross. We rested upand hiked another 3 hours up to the Upper-Traverse hut. On our way there wepassed a family and a lady who would be joining us in the hut that evening.When we got to the top I was the only person with dry boots. What a relief thatwas, knowing there was 3 more days of hiking left. The Upper-Traverse hut wasin a gorgeous little mountain plain. It looked out across a grassy bog. When wewoke up the next morning it was hailing and blowing. This was the day we wereplanning to do the traverse which was the highest part of the hike at 1800meters. The crossing was suppose to take 6 hours which meant we would have toleave before 1:30 if we wanted to do it with time to spare if anything wentwrong. At the top if there is gale force winds the crossing can be reallyrough. At 1:00 it looked like the weather had been good for an hour so wedecided to punch out and at 1:15 were on the trail. We had to climb 400 metersand then go down a further 1000 after we reached the summit. The up was ok. Itwas raining pretty hard and the trail was a creek but we could walk beside itfor about 150m vertical. After that it was climbing over rocks and bouldersusing all your limbs for another 100m. After that is was walking over meadows,rocks, and snow. Once we got to the top the wind really picked up. It was goingto be really cold until we could get back down into the tree-line. We decided topush on and started to go down the other side. This was supposed to be thehardest part of the track because it was such a steep drop. It was crazycombined with the rain because once more the trail was a creak. I decided tostick to trail though because my gear was so waterproof and it had good rockholds. Even so I still fell a couple times. Once we got down that steep sectionthe track was sort of carved out of the mountain and it went down at a fairlysteep angle until it came to the tree line. We walked in the tree thinking wewere done the hard bit until we came upon a huge avalanche path. It wasstraight rock scree. Here the trail markers disappeared and we decided that theonly path must be down the avalanche. It was really steep for a long time. Luckilythere were lots of rocks so we had good grip. After walking down for a whileand crossing some really difficult rivers we managed to make it down. Accordingto the map it would be a long flat stretch until the hut, so we figured itwould be easy walking until the hut. We couldn't have been more wrong. The rainoff the mountains had swelled up all the rivers, creeks, streams, and tricklesso much that any flowing water became a puzzle on how to cross. There was oneriver we crossed where a tree had felled across and the river was so raging theonly way across was this tree. It was about as big as knee. I was just bigenough to hold us. There was another branch that was a handhold. That rivercrossing was super scary. The rest of the day was river crossing after rivercrossing until we made it to the hut, which we reached 2 hours early. We did itin 4 hours. When we got in the West-Sabine cabin I was again the only personwith dry boots out of the other 7 people there. Thanks to my rain pants, gatorsand boots. Nice little cabin and good company for the evening. The next day we trekkedon. It was a repeat of the flat section from the day before. At one point wehad to stop take off our boots and stuff and wade through a river up to our underwear.Ice cold. At another point an avalanche had come down the path in winter andleft super steep scree. Normally this wouldn't have been such a problem but theriver was so high it covered the path by a couple feet and it was ragging. Wehad to walk across this avalanche scree. At one point there was 2 meters withno solid footing we had to fun across while sliding to a log that was buried halfwayto grab onto. Super sketch but we made it. Had we fallen it would have been agood swim. After a light 4 hours hiking we made it to the next hut, Sabine hut.We had the same company as the last hut minus one person plus a family. Afterdrying up again we set off for the last day. We hiked out 5 and a half hoursalthough apparently it was suppose to take 8 hours. The hike was thankfully dryfor this day. We had some really nice views and a nice hut called the Spear-Grasshut to stop for lunch. At one point there was a boardwalk that went over aswamp that must have been at least a kilometre long. When we got to the end Ihad to walk an extra 2km to get our car. Then I had to go back and grab Jon andJordan. Then we went off to Westport for 3 nights. Then we went onto the Heaphytrack for the next couple days. We decided to do a light walk into the HeaphyHut campsite. It took us 3.5 hours. We set up camp and enjoyed the rest of theday, and the next day at the campsite. On the second day we walked a littleways up the track and discovered and stream coming out of a small cave. Mostpeople would stop because normally they are going from one spot to the nextwith their multi-day bags. Because we only had day bags and nothing else to dowe decided to go in. Once we half crawled into the entrance we found the caveto be a lot longer than we realized. Jordan and I went back to camp to grabsome torches. We then hiked back and went in the cave. After wading fromchamber to chamber that we could stand, in we got to a spot that was deeper. Itwas about 2 feet wide above the water and 3 or four feet under water. The watercame up to chest height in the section. When we made it through we came toanother big chamber. This chamber had really nice stalagmites and stalactites.We thought this was the last chamber but then we realized it went on. We had tosquat in water so that it came up to our necks and shuffle through to the nextchamber. At the end there was another really nice chamber that was big and openagain. All in all we must have gone in about 100 feet or more. The next day wewoke up to rain. We packed up in rain and walked back in rain. That hike onlytook 3 hours. There is nothing like a little rain to make you hike faster.

Thanks for all the comments that people have left much appreciated.

Kris