A Dangerous Business

Date: 25th February 2024

Start: Lower Princhester Hut (km 2811.9)

End: Lower Wairaki Hut (km 2842)

Distance Travelled: 30.1 km

Total Distance Completed: 2688.5 km

Song Currently Stuck in Head: Whole Again by Dadi Freyr

Track Visibility: what track?

My alarm went off and a sea of red lights lit up the hut. No, this wasn’t some special forces raid on the hut, we just all had the red light function of our headlamps turned on. Another long day ahead for the gang, however starting off I was left to my own devices. Whether it be through impatience or giving themselves more time to take photos along the way, Team Camera and Oli left 15 minutes before I did. It would’ve been nice if they told me why they decided to do this and it did leave me feeling a bit miffed as I finished packing, but this track has got to be walked one way or the other.

What did I expect from today? The start of some proper mud, another bog, and instantly wet shoes. The last point didn’t come true for a couple hours. First thing I had to do was complete a 350 m climb which was muddy in places but the worst bits were all avoidable and the bits that weren’t were never deeper than my shoes.

Another thing I had going for me was my pack was feeling nice and light, now with only 3 days of food remaining. Additionally, I weirdly had a lot of energy going into the morning. Normally it takes me a while to fully wake up, but today I was raring to go. Don’t get me wrong, the climb was still taxing and I stopped regularly to catch my breath. In the end it took a bit over an hour to finish the climbing and start descending down a slippery track covered in an old favourite substance of mine. The red clay had returned, but I was not about to fall victim to its traps. Mercifully this was only a short section of trail and it soon returned to a classic wet forest track. Well, that was for a few kilometres, then the forest ended and I entered an ocean of tussock.

You might be thinking I used the word “ocean” just to describe the size of land covered by tussock, but it has an alternative meaning. The ground was soaked, every squelching step bringing up water and mud, and this time my feet did get wet. It was just as I expected so it didn’t bother me all that much, nor did the sighting of Matt’s white groundsheet just ahead. I caught up with Team Camera, joining them for the rest of today’s walk. Oli had gone ahead on a mission of his own. Vlad had reported that Bertie (last seen in Nelson Lakes) had lost one of his crocs on this bit of trail and Oli was adamant on finding it and getting it to him today.

Now let’s discuss the route through the tussock, and let me begin by saying that attempting this bit of Te Araroa in poor visibility would suck big time. There’s no definitive trail, just a handful of markers roughly guiding you in the right direction. It’s up to the hiker to find a suitable route through the tussock that was sometimes taller than Melly. At times we did head back into some forested sections with classic orange triangles, but even then it sometimes wasn’t clear where to go.

Added with that was terrain that could be best described as sneaky. Small streams and knee-deep mud holes were littered all throughout the landscape, all well disguised by the tussock. Twice Matt fell foul into some of these holes (without injury, just a bit of bruising to his ego) whilst I used my pole to swat the grass aside to see the ground before stepping anywhere.

A couple more smaller hills had to be traversed before reaching Aparima Hut, offering some decent views of the tussock ocean that we’d just come through.

By this stage – not just today but the trail in general – I was pretty over the slow pace we’d been setting so I was pretty happy when I found a nice trail 2 km out from Aparima Hut which I made quick work of, arriving at the hut for a late but well earned lunch break.

There was still 13.5 km to walk and it didn’t promise to be much easier than what we’d already come through. I don’t normally do this in forested sections, but this called for music and podcasts to get me through. Starting off was alright. It was more bog but always with a dry path to avoid most of it.

Bog gave way to forest which was more of the same scenery as I’ve seen in countless forests up and down the country. The one thing I did notice about this forest is the lack of birdsong I could hear. My guess is there hasn’t been much trapping done in here so introduced predators still run the show. Hopefully DOC can get around to doing something about it to bring some native birds back to this forest. With nothing to hear and not much to see (apart from some lovely fern groves), all I could do was keep marching on.

A bit of mud close to Lower Wairaki Hut was the only major obstacle to overcome on this section. It was getting pretty late by the time we arrived and it was getting rather chilly too. The hut only has 4 bunks, all of which were taken.

That meant another night on the floor in what is my second last hut on the trail. To help dry out our shoes and warm up the hut, Oli had started a fire in the hut’s open fireplace, adding to the cosy vibes the building was giving out.

Our late arrival meant that this was one of those nights of frantic rushing and not much time spent properly relaxing. At least I’ll get a rest day after tomorrow, even this late on the journey these long 10+ hour days are still exhausting. I’ll be glad when I reach the beach and the walking becomes easier.