Day 91: Chasing Charlie

January 9, 2020

Kilometers: 2171.8-2196.9

Sanctuary Backpackers in Arthur’s Pass to Hamilton Hut

I woke up before the others and while still bundled up in my warm clothes walked over to the cafe. It wasn’t open yet but there WiFi was working. I sat outside uploading blog posts and catching up with the world. Chuck and Peter eventually made their way over as well. When the cafe opened at 8 we were first in line to order the “Big Mountain Breakfast” with sausage, bacon, eggs, toast, mushrooms, hashbrown and tomatoes. We have realized this is the standard huge breakfast throughout most of the country. We ate it and then thought about seconds. I had some banana bread. 

I stayed at the cafe and kept an eye on our charging devices while the other two went to pack up. When they returned we switched. We had all of our gear packed and at the cafe around 10:30. We then set up a shuttle to pick us up two days from now to take us from the trail into the town of Methven. The trail has two hazard zones, both huge rivers, that hikers must find a way around. There are no bridges close by and so most hikers choose to try their luck hitching or set up a shuttle to get them to avoid a massive road walk around these rivers. We decided to pay a bit extra to have a definite ride at a definite time. 

Before we set off to get back on the trail we had a few more small purchases. I had to resupply my gas canister, get some more snickers bars and, of course, eat two scoops of mint chocolate chip ice cream. 

We then walked out to the street and stuck our thumb out. Almost immediately an older man pulled over for me and he only had room for one. This ended up being quite a ride for only being 5kms. Making small talk I asked him if he was from around here, he explained that his brother lived in Dunedin and he was on his way to see him. He then clarified that by lived he meant he was in prison there. 

For the next few minutes he mumbled through a ridiculous story about not being able to control his farm animals on his farm in Australia and having to sell it. This was his segway from the prison thing. 

We then pulled up to a construction area. The guy acted like he had never seen this before. At first he thought it was a police traffic stop and seemed quite worried. When he realized it was just construction he proceeded to drive down the wrong side of the highway around it. The construction guys flicked us off and yelled at us. 

I was quite happy to see the pull off where the trail resumed. I thanked him for the ride and quite an experience and hopped out. Less than three minutes later Charlie and Peter hopped out of a van. It was just after 11 and we were ready to start what was supposed to be a short and easy day. 

The trail began by walking through long talk grass next to a river. The track was hard to find. Even when guthook said we where right on the track we couldn’t find it. 

We soon got to the only major river crossing of the day. Although the picture makes it look simple it was definitely the hardest river crossing we’ve had thus far. The water moved extremely fast and got up to my mid thigh. Team Belgium didn’t have quite as hard of a time because they are giants and have very long legs but they agreed that was the strongest river we’ve crossed. 

On the other side of the river we entered more long grass. At one point the grass was so thick that I couldn’t see where I was stepping and fell. I fell right into a huge thorn bush. I was uninjured but I got up to realize my shorts had a few big rips in them. Looks like I’ll finally have a chance to test out my sewing skills. I would also later realize that I lost a snickers bar in fall. Tragic. 

We walked out of the bush and onto state highway 73. We had a few kms on the road. I’ve been amazed at how little road walking we’ve had on the South Island. It felt like the north island was one long road walk at times but road walking has been almost nonexistent so far on the South Island. 

After only a few kms we turned off the road and onto the Harper River track. Three hundred meters into the track there was a hut not more than 25 meters off the track and very visible. I was walking in front and pulled off first, going into the hut to eat lunch. Peter, who was bringing up the rear came in and joined me. Where was Charlie? Peter and I knew he was about 100 meters behind me and 100 meters ahead of Peter at most climbing up towards the hut. Maybe he just wasn’t hungry and wanted to get the climb out of the way. 

Peter and I ate a normal lunch and refilled water. We then set off for the climb and our intended hut for the night. It was steep at the beginning with the first two kms climbing over 400 meters. It was through a nice shaded forest though, making it much cooler than it could have been. 

The forest then gave way to a large tussock ridge that we walked across. The view was incredible. To the west was snow covered mountain peaks, to the north was the huge Waimakariri river valley, and to the East was farmland in the foreground and more huge mountains in the background. 

When I reached the top I was expecting to see Charlie sitting there waiting for us. He was nowhere in sight so I continued on down to the next hut which was about a km downhill. When I got there I realized we had an issue. We had talked about staying at the hut but there was no sign of Charlie. I checked the intentions book to find that he signed and left us a message saying he didn’t know where we were and he was continuing on to the next hut 5.5kms away. I knew the next hut was steaming garbage, or some would say had a lot of character. It has a dirt floor, doesn’t have mattresses on the bunks and is rodent infested- all of which I learned from comments about it on guthook. How did he not know where we were? 

Peter and I continued down the Harper River towards the next hut. It took us over an hour to reach it and it was about 5:20 when we got there. Again, no Charlie. At this point it was getting late in the day and we had already walked way past our intended home for the night. The next hut was another 4km so we put our packs back on and went to work. 

With about a half km left to the hut we finally caught up to Charlie. He apologized and realized in his confusion had lead us much further than intended. I was tired but not upset as it just gives us a ridiculously easy day tomorrow. 

We walked up to Hamilton Hut, which had about 8 other hikers already there. It is a really nice hut with 20 bunks, a great view and plenty of table/sitting space. I quickly headed down to the river for a pushup bath in the shallow but fast moving water. 

For dinner I had some more freeze dried food. It was beef bourguignon with mashed potatoes and I think it was the best one yet. Still not something I would eat if I wasn’t camping but pretty good. 

After dinner the three of us taught rikiki to a hiker named Bjorn who got it quickly. We then hit the hay. 

Due to our extra walking today tomorrow is going to be one of the easiest days yet. It’s 18kms all slightly downhill. We’ll be sleeping in as much as our bodies allow.