A Dangerous Business

Date: 17th January 2024

Start: Hunters Hut (km 1928.9)

End: Red Hills Hut (km 1947.1)

Distance Travelled: 18.2 km

Total Distance Completed: 1787 km

Song Currently Stuck in Head: Not Afraid by Hillsong United

Food Bag: satisfyingly empty

As I was writing up today’s stats above, I had a moment where it dawned on me that I’ve already completed over 200 km of the South Island in the space of 10 days. And that’s with a super short day starting the Queen Charlotte and several short days (distance-wise) through the Richmond’s. How have I done that? No seriously, how have I walked 200 km like it’s nothing? In my mind I was only boarding the Aratere in Wellington yesterday and now I’m 200 km south of Ship Cove. Te Araroa has completely warped my sense of what’s possible and what I’m capable of.

Crisis aside, this morning was simply beautiful. The hills to the east blocked the sun for the first couple of hours of our walk which I was very happy about. Apart from when we were above the trees between Starveall and Rintoul, this section has been very sweaty. I’ve been drinking upwards of 4 litres per day because of the heat, so to have a cooler morning where I can walk briskly without overheating is a nice little blessing on what will be the last full day through the ranges.

No big climbs today either, just a handful of mid-sized ones but still with the same annoying loose gravel/scree descents after each one. I’m getting more confident with them, helped along with Oli’s encouragement and tips.

By mid-morning the sun could no longer be held back, its heat making up for lost time by increasing my water consumption tenfold. Same as yesterday, the lower foliage cover did not provide much relief so we settled into another sweltering day. The one advantage it did provide was helping Team Camera dry off some of their sleeping gear that got soaked with dew after another night of cowboy camping.

With 3 km to go to Porters Creek Hut we got a visual on the hut itself. Partially because we were up high and the hut was down a valley, but mostly because like Top Wairoa it was painted bright orange. A gentle descent lead us closer to the structure which I can only assume is visible from the ISS. It made for a nice morning tea/early lunch break.

The stint to Red Hills Hut would be longer and hotter and contained the majority of the day’s climb. Scenery-wise it was more of the same, very arid land, red dirt, feeling very much like western Queensland.

After a while I noticed a pattern with the elevation profile. The track would for the most part follow the path of Maitland Creek on one side of the valley, but whenever one of its tributaries came out to meet it we’d have to descend sharply to cross the stream and then just as sharply climb back up again. A couple of times this happened we had to do a bit of what can only be described as borderline bouldering, only without any crash mats below us and carrying a large unwieldy pack.

Two hours in I was in desperate need of some shade, a break, and some food. One of these stream crossings provided this, albeit being a bit cheap on the shade side of things. Looking at the elevation profile again, I could see that we only had one steep climb left to do before the trail evened off for a gentle approach to the hut, making for a nice change after several days of steep drops/climbs right before that night’s hut.

Reenergised, that final climb was done easily and we were met with a tussock covered valley all the way to Red Hills Hut. As good as the I formation that Far Out provides is, there is one big thing it omits: mud. Yep, turns out the South Island has mud too, only this mud is sneaky, hiding underneath a tussock blanket, ready to make its home inside our unaware shoes.

Perhaps through sheer luck I only got a little mud ingress which dried out quickly. This entire afternoon I’d had one eye on the sky looking for any sign of impending rain that Melly had promised would be coming today during our walk. Either the forecast had changed or was just plain wrong but no rain arrived, making for welcome relief when we at last got to the hut.

The current Red Hills Hut was built in 2010 to replace a much older structure. It still only contained 6 bunks, but its large windows made it feel much more airy than some of the other huts we’ve been to. All the beds were taken when the four of us arrived, but with rain on the way there was no way I was gonna camp. I picked a spot on the floor near the door which I figured would be a good place to lay out my mattress without getting in anyone’s way and slept there. The clouds were getting darker as the afternoon progressed into evening, but still no rain, giving ample time to dry our clothes from the caked-on sweat they’d gathered throughout the day. Dinner time was a bit squishy with everyone wanting a bit of bench space to run their stoves. To right was a mixture of pasta and noodles in my attempt to rid my bag of as much food as I could before I got to St Arnaud and was reunited with my first resupply box. I can’t remember what I put in this one so I’m kind of excited to open it up and see what I’ll be eating through Nelson Lakes.

Speaking of food, Bevan – the DOC ranger I’d met on the Tararuas – has started a bit of a trend through the Richmond’s. In each hut he passes he’s dropping off a block of chocolate for someone to take. The purpose is if you take the block, you place another block in another hut further down the trail. As I was running low and wanted a bit more, I claimed the block in this hut.

It was very nice. I haven’t tried many of Whittaker’s gourmet varieties so it made for a nice change from the usual blocks. So now I will buy a new block in St Arnaud and drop it off in a hut along the way. Hopefully people get behind it and don’t just take the block without giving back. For the most part, the TA community is pretty good at helping each other out but there are a handful of, shall we say, entitled hikers that are also travelling through the country. Hopefully I’ll see plenty of Instagram pictures to the contrary.