Day 90: Top Wairoa to Porters hut

I didn’t have a great night, I just couldn’t sleep and then had to pee so I had to climb down from my bunk and navigate the people sleeping on the floor. I must have dropped off eventually but was woken before 6 by one person getting up to get on their way. I got up around 6:30 with the others. The day started with a climb up Mt Ellis and thankfully it wasn’t raining and you could see some views.

Then it was a long downhill and along and across a river before a short climb up to Hunters hut, where I had lunch. The hut has nice view back to where we came down from Mt Ellis.

Unfortunately my knee was hurting with every step, but I decided that I could continue on since the next hut wasn’t too far and the description of the trail was that it was ‘undulating’. It certainly was up and down and although the climbs and descents were short, they were steep and not what I would call undulating. The landscape was interesting, with different colored rocks and very sparse vegetation, almost like being on another planet.

It was difficult to enjoy though since my knee was hurting with every step and seemed to be getting more swollen by the second. I also started getting a very painful Achilles tendon on my other side. The last few kms were thankfully just a gradual downhill to Porters Creek hut. I put some Voltaren on my knee when I arrived and it seemed to help the swelling, along with some massaging. There are four of here tonight and we couldn’t stop talking about the food we’re going to eat when we get to town tomorrow, that is if I can make it there…

Day 91: Porters Creek hut to St-Arnaud

Today was also very painful. My Achilles was probably worse than my knee, especially when there was a sideways camber to the track. My knee wasn’t much better than the previous day either. The trail was otherwise quite enjoyable with only short ups and downs and some stream and a river crossing.

I eventually hobbled into Red Hills hut just before noon. There was happily an escape route here, only 1.5 hours down to the highway as opposed to 4-5 hours for the official trail. I opted for the easier route and it was a gentle grade atv type road all the way down. I got a lift from the first car that passed and was in St-Arnaud just after 2 pm. After a shower and laundry, I met up with Hanna and Emmet and we had dinner together at the hotel restaurant. I had a lamb shank with roast veggies (I gave me beetroot away) and mashed potatoes and we all got ice cream sundaes for dessert (they were out of hokey pokey ice cream, which they deep fry).

I also made a physio appointment for tomorrow afternoon in Nelson and booked a shuttle there. I have a feeling that I’ll need at least a week off trail and hope it’s not longer than that.