A Dangerous Business

Date: 13th January 2024

Start: Rocks Hut (km 1858.4)

End: Slaty Hut (km 1883.3)

Distance Travelled: 24.9 km

Total Distance Completed: 1723.2 km

Song Currently Stuck in Head: the song of thousands of cicadas

Metres Climbed: over 1800

Hey weather forecast, why did you lie to me? You said it wouldn’t rain, so why is it raining? Ok, to be fair it was only drizzle, but I was expecting another bone dry day. On the plus side, at least the morning would be nice and cool.

Oli decided to join our party of four, all aiming for the far target of Slaty Hut. We’d given ourselves the best chance of making it there in good time: leaving the hut early, walking on a decently good path, and keeping a steady pace. As soon as we left the rain stopped, leaving us to walk through a recently moistened forest in the clouds.

This would become a problem after about an hour. We’d been climbing up to a summit a little over 1000 m high and the track became very overgrown as we neared it. I was having to wade through bushes taller than me, their tiny leaves each containing what felt like a bathtub’s worth of water each. Despite the lack of rain, I was soon soaked and a bit peeved. My feet notwithstanding, I don’t like being wet whilst hiking. There’d occasionally be short sections where the track wasn’t overgrown and my clothes could dry out a bit, but before they could do so we would dive right back into the bushes and get drenched again.

As with everything on this planet, nothing lasts forever. The bushes ended and I could breathe a sigh of relief. For the briefest of moments, because the end of the soaking wet bushes marked the start of a long descent through a heavily clouded forest.

Occasionally the descent would be broken up by small sections of flat walking over treeless terrain. Oli mentioned that there is a particular mineral in the rocks that prevents anything bigger than tussock from growing here. Apparently back in the day a few mines were opened to get this mineral, including New Zealand’s first railway from Nelson, but they were never profitable.

As we dropped lower the sun started to appear with great ferocity, as if it was personally offended at the clouds and their efforts to prevent it from shining on us. Is it too much to ask for just a little bit of moderation? I don’t want too much sun, but I also don’t want too much cloud cover. Just a nice balance between the two is all I ask for. With that not happening, I guess I’ll settle for a bit of shelter at the first hut of the day.

The second hut was less than an hour from Browning and involved walking along and through its namesake creek multiple times. I wasn’t worried about wet feet as I knew with the heat they would dry out quickly.

Hacket Hut marked the end of the easy stuff. The next hut – Starveall – required a 930 m climb to reach it. In this heat. Jamie wasn’t feeling up to it, deciding to bail out here for Nelson. Smart decision, I don’t think it would be wise to be up on the tip of the range if you’re feeling anything other than perfect. The rest of us, although already weary, were determined to get up on top today, crossing over the final bridge we’d see for a number of days and onto the climb to Starveall.

The walk went exactly as advertised. That is to say, it was really hard. Still carrying around 9 days worth of food, each step up the tree roots and rocks that constitute stairs in these parts was hard won. I was number 3 in our formation and I could see Matt ahead of me and Melly behind me struggling a lot. Oli… is not human. He’s a veteran of the PCT and has also spent 10 years serving as a UN peacekeeper, so he’s incredibly fit. Nevertheless he chose to stick with us slow pokes. An hour into the climb we stopped for lunch at a nice cool stream, everyone making use of it to fill up their water bottles. My bladder of water that I had filled all the way back at Rocks Hut was almost hot; there was nothing refreshing about it whenever I had a drink from it. The stream on the other hand was lovely and I had cold water for the rest of the climb up. That may not seem like much, but it was a small blessing that meant a lot to me.

With our energy stores replenished from lunch, it was time to continue the ascent just as slowly as we had begun it. I wouldn’t say it was any steeper than the climbs we did in the Tararuas, but the scale of this climb was much greater. There were barely any breaks, the occasional time when the trail did level off being swiftly used as a water break point. The distance to the hut on Far Out edged closer and closer, until at long last it just appeared out of nowhere right on the treeline.

Remember how I said I thought we were going very slowly? Well, the trail notes state the climb should take 4 hours to complete. Many of the comments on Far Out pointed to this time being closer to 3 hours for someone of our fitness level. We did it in… 2 hours and 45 minutes (walking time). When Melly read that out I was gobsmacked. All this time I was under the impression I was very much in the slower category of hiker, yet here I was going quicker than the advertised time for a very fit hiker. That was, as you might expect, a very nice feeling.

But this wasn’t to be my finishing point for today. I said yesterday that I’d only press on for Slaty Hut if I felt up to it and there was time remaining in the day to do it in comfortably. Both conditions have been met, so it’s time for just a little bit of ridge walking.

Gone were the orange arrows, replaced by orange poles above the treeline. We could see them leading up and over a ridge seemingly a long way above us. From below it seemed impossible, but then you start walking and before you know it you’re looking down at the point where you just were. Kinda amazing what your body can accomplish when you set your mind to it. After traversing behind Starveall, we dipped back into the trees, but not before catching a glimpse of the two mountains we would have to summit tomorrow: Little Rintoul and Mt Rintoul (why oh why didn’t they call it Big Rintoul?).

Happily, the trail through the forest was much nicer than the ridge walk in the Tararuas. The gradients were gentle and at least on this bit there were no crazy rocks to scramble over. In short, it was quick work getting to Slaty Hut, arriving before 7pm.

The hut is of a similar design to some of the others down in the valley, with the 6 bunks arranged in an L shape. When we got there, 5 bunks were already occupied by hikers who had begun at Hacket Hut. Melly, Matt, and Oli all seemed happy to camp so I took it. This is going to be one of the big problems the TA is going to have to deal with as it gains popularity: how do you house everyone up in the mountains with 6 bunk hits? Sure you can camp, but there’s only so much room for that too. Potentially in future seasons numbers might have to be restricted to ensure everyone has somewhere safe to rest overnight, or new bigger huts will need to be built. I highly doubt DOC has the budget for the latter.

But that’s not a problem that I need to solve. My biggest problem right now is my empty stomach. I fixed it with a big bowl of pasta, some peanut butter, and beef jerky. Then it was time to turn in for the night in the warm hut. Melly and Matt were going to cowboy camp. For those unaware, that means sleeping outside without a tent. Just a ground sheet and a sleeping bag. We’re at 1400 m ASL, it’s gonna be cold. But hey, that’s their decision, I’m perfectly happy staying in the hut. I like huts. Also, it’ll help me get a good rest before tomorrow’s crossing of the Rintouls. That is going to be a hard slog, but it has to be done somehow.