Day 101: Nelson to St-Arnaud

I met up with my lift, a family of 4 going up to the Nelson Lakes for a quick weekend tramp, as planned. They seemed apologetic about giving me the middle seat in the back, but I was just incredibly grateful for the lift. I got to St-Arnaud just before noon and couldn’t check in yet, so I had some lunch at their restaurant. For dessert I got the deep fried hokey pokey (honey comb) ice cream, but it turned out that a mistake was made and I was served deep fried vanilla ice cream. It was a bit underwhelming in any case.

I also bumped into some hikers just arriving from the Richmonds, including a Kiwi man that I know from the Whanganui river and two Québécoise, and we made dinner plans. I sorted by food box and figured I have food for 8 days and then relaxed a bit before having dinner and calling it a night.

Day 102: St-Arnaud to Lakehead hut

I took it easy in the morning, made some brekkie, called home and then finished my paperback before finally heading off by about noon. I had about 10 km to do along the shore of Lake Rotoiti to the first hut. The trail was fairly easy and the views of the lake with the surrounding mountains was enchanting.

I was having a hard time though. Both my knee and my Achilles were sore and I felt very cautious. I ended up removing the knee brace that I had bought in Nelson before leaving since it didn’t seem to be helping. When I got to the hut, I was pretty certain that I would be hiking back out to St-Arnaud. It was early, but I managed to pass the time chatting with a Swedish hiker who had finished the TA and who is spending a bit more time in the Nelson Lakes while slowly making his way back to Auckland. He’s from a town near the arctic circle in Sweden and told me about hunting birds (sort of like turkeys) and moose. It was interesting to hear about the moose hunting in particular, even though it’s not something I would personally consider doing. When I went to bed, I told myself that I would see how things were in the morning and decide then if I would continue or go back.

Day 103: Lakehead hut to John Tait hut

I decided that I was heading back after I got up, but then about a km down the trail, I turned around. I felt good and was walking better than yesterday and it was a lovely day. It was again a pretty easy walk to the next hut, but it was slightly longer at about 15km. We went along a river most of the way, sometimes through the forest and sometimes through these fields. It was beautiful again, with the mountains in the backdrop.

My knee and Achilles were sore but I felt more confident with my steps and walked at a decent pace. I again got to the hut quite early and spent the rest of the day reading a magazine in the hut and chatting with the hikers that eventually trickled in.

The effects of Cyclone Garbriel will become a factor as of tomorrow with some high winds and a bit of rain. There’s a saddle after the next hut, where the gusts are forecast to be about 100km per hour so it might just be a 6 km to the next hut tomorrow.

Day 104: John Tait hut to Upper Travers hut

The general feeling seemed to be to not rush to get up this morning. Given that we were about 15 in the hut, I was surprised that no one was up and off before 6 and that most started stirring at 7:30-8. The sky was overcast, but it wasn’t windy or raining so it seems that the general feeling was also that it was best to go to the next hut. It was a nice walk that took just over two hours along a stream through the forest. There was even a side trail to a waterfall that would have been the perfect place to swim in a hot day.

Closer to the hut, it was obvious that the wind was picking up and there were a few drops of rain. My decision was made not to go any further as I figured that the wind at the saddle (next section goes over Travers saddle at 1700m) might be close to 100km per hour. So it was an afternoon of eating and chatting at the hut. One woman, part of a group of hikers from Australia, arrived with a likely broken wrist and we used a Garmin InReach to contact emergency services. She seems comfortable enough thankfully. It’s definitely an advantage of the InReach to be able to actually message the situation and text back and forth. The helicopter showed up at around 6pm and the two search and rescuers came up to the hut and took the woman away. It was a bit unexpected since we thought they would tell us when they would head over as the last we’d heard was that they couldn’t offer an ETA given the weather. After that excitent, it was dinner and then an early bedtime.