A Dangerous Business

Date: 12th February 2024

Start: Ahuriri River (km 2531.4)

End: Top Timaru Hut (km 2555.7)

Distance Travelled: 24.3 km

Total Distance Completed: 2402.2 km

Song Currently Stuck in Head: Shy by for KING & COUNTRY

Hut Insulation: top notch

A cold morning brought in the new day and I packed up feeling glad I didn’t have to wade through the Ahuriri at this hour. As we got ready to leave, a large contingent of hikers camping on the other side passed us. Don’t think there’ll be much room in the hut tonight.

Once we climbed up the cliff bordering the river’s southern bank, we then walked across a gravel road and into Longslip Station along a 4WD track which gave us access to the Ahuriri and Hawea conservation areas. Our time with dry feet was short lived (but still very much appreciated) with a handful of stream crossings appearing soon after we’d entered the station.

As always, Oli always seemed to find a way to rock hop around each one to keep hut feet dry. If you haven’t worked it out by now, Oli doesn’t always go for easy, he loves the challenge of keeping out of the river’s for as long as he can. Sadly for him, rocks can only take you so far. The final crossing right before the 4WD track began climbing into the surrounding mountains was a flat ford with no rocks to use. He had a bit of a whinge and then waded through.

As I’m hoping you picked up on, we were now diving deeper into the high country, leaving behind the flat valley we started in and following this 4WD track that winded its way over and into the hills.

The grade of the track was… inconvenient. Not steep, not difficult, but with enough ups and downs that I was getting mildly annoyed at it.

Still, we could make good time on it and we soon rolled into Tin Hut, a private hut run by Longslip Station and not by DOC. The hut was surrounded by flattened tent flies and ground sheets, that big group I was talking about earlier using the time to dry everything out in the late morning sun. An excellent idea, my brain concluded after an oddly long amount of time, taking my own tent out to dry and having an early lunch whilst I waited.

This is also where I’d say farewell to Matt, Melly, and Oli as theyvwanted to take an alternative route up Melina Ridge. Yes, their primary reason was just so Melly could say she’d climbed a ridge that shares her name. I stuck with the true TA route which took a 4WD track up to Martha Saddle. It was a big climb, but thankfully for me my feet are better at climbing things than a 4WD’s tyres. What exactly am I taking about? Have I finally lost the plot? No, it’s just that a track designed to carry cars can only get so steep, which is good news for me.

That meant I actually got a few switchbacks on the way up and not the typical “straight line, damn the gradient” mentality to track construction. It was still tough and I got into a routine of blasting up a small section of the climb, stopping for half a minute, then continuing. Probably not the most efficient, but it worked for me.

Nearing the top, even the tussock stopped growing, leaving me in a desolate rocky world. Motivation now rising as I could now see the top of the saddle, I pressed on and used the last of my energy reserves to get to the top where I was greeted by many a hiker, a bit of wind, and Tititea/Mt Aspiring.

The other hikers left soon after and I was left to myself and the 2 bars of mobile reception I had. Risky I know, I could’ve accidentally spent way too much time scrolling through all the messages I’d missed. The wind had other ideas, however. It didn’t take long for me to get rather cold, forcing me to saddle up and get back on the move down to the Timaru River. Happily, the path descended down nicely, with many a switchback giving me a view of the other walkers ahead of me.

When you find a good path on the TA, enjoy it. They won’t last forever. The rest of today was one such nice path, albeit one without any markers at all. No arrows, no poles, not even any cairns. I just had to keep one eye on the path, making sure I didn’t lose it. That wasn’t difficult, thousands of TA hikers from past seasons had made a well-trodden trail.

It took just 2 hours to cover the 8 km from the saddle to Top Timaru Hut, although it did take a minute to find it. It’s located just below the main trail passing by the toilet.

If it looks new, that’s because it was renovated in 2011 after being originally constructed in 1962. Only 6 beds, but with a nice dry room out front and plenty of windows to let in the natural light. There’s no fireplace, but it’s so well insulated that you really don’t need one. I was perfectly warm all night. Oh yes, I got the final bed in the hut, sharing the space with 5 other hikers, only one of whom I had briefly met on trail. That was Rob, a Brit who’s been living in Auckland for close to 2 decades now. With him were one other Brit – Lily – and 3 Kiwis: Alan, Boris, and Janet. Now I’m normally the baby of any hiker group I’ve been with on the trail, but this time there was no question about it. Apart from Lily, the rest were all in their mid 40s or older. I didn’t mind in the slightest. What that meant was that the evening’s conversation revolved mostly around their experiences back around my age, and oh boy did they have some stories to share. My party will have camped somewhere about 1 km down the trail where the Melina Ridge track rejoins Te Araroa. I’ll catch up with them tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I have a comfy bed to attend to. Sadly it’s not a blue mattress, but it’ll do.