Day 56: Halfway Home

December 5, 2019

Kilometers: 1463.1-1500.1

Palmerston North Hostel to Motu Rimu Hut

We were a bit slow this going this morning. We were out of the hostel by 8:45 and headed to the countdown to resupply. We resupplied for seven days, which is the most food we have carried so far. We have two days of hiking to get us to the Tararua Range. The weather forecast looks pretty bad for the range as we are supposed to arrive there. These mountains are no joke. More than twenty-two people have died in the mountain range since 1970 with many more needing rescuing. The range sees about 200 days of rain per year, contains many river crossings, has extremely high wind speeds and frequently experiences low visibility from fog and clouds. If the mountains still have a bad forecast when we arrive we will bail out to the nearby town of Levin to wait it out. However, in the off chance that the weather clears we wanted to have enough food with us to make it over the range. This strategy calls for seven days of food, making our bags weigh about 45-50 pounds each, which is the heaviest they’ve been all trip. As for notable pitches, we realized snicker bars were on sail $1 NZD so we bought 28 of them. 

We left countdown and headed for the Bivouac Outdoors store. We bought some freeze dried meals that we weren’t able to get at countdown. At this point we had basically no room left in our bags. Charlie hiked the whole days with his freeze dried meals attached to the outside of his pack. 

It was getting late in the day and we had quite a ways to walk so we decided getting a sit down breakfast was the right call before leaving town. After some eggs, bacon and toast we were off at 11:30. We walked through the city for a few kilometers to eventually meet back up with the trail. We walked alongside the river for a little before crossing a bridge. 

The trail through the suburbs was very cool. It went up and down through a forest. It was hard to tell you were basically still surrounded by civilization. 

After a few kms the path stopped and we were back on the road. We were all definitely feeling the heavy packs, for the first time all trip it was actually uncomfortably heavy. Soon after getting to the road Peter decided he’d try to hitch for a for few kilometers. Charlie, Ethan and I kept walking and about 10 minutes later a car pulled up alongside us with Peter in the passenger seat. The woman driving offered to take our bags with her and Peter up to where the road ended and track began again. We were pretty thrilled that we didn’t have to carry our bags the next few kms. She even gave the three of us a big bag of chips that we ate while walking down the road. 

When we arrived at our bags it was already about 3:30 and we still had 18kms left to walk. We knew it would be one of our later nights into camp. The forecast also called for rain at some point in the day but luckily it was holding off.

The track took us on footpaths and gravel roads for the next few kms. The wind picked up and we turned a couple corners where the wind hit you and knocked you back a bit. The next hour or so we were fighting a pretty strong headwind, making our walk with our heavy packs even harder.

After some more road walking and another break we got to a bike track. It climbed a few hundred meters but went through some awesome thick forest. 

A little after 6pm we arrived at the 1500 kilometer marker! This marker was put up in 2017 and the trail has changed a bit since then so it actually sits at about km 1495.7. Nonetheless we celebrated and took a picture at the old halfway point. 

We sped through the last 4.4kms to the hut. We were determined to finish the day and pulled in right before 7. I was not very happy to find that the hut was completely filled with a bunch of teenagers and one father-like person. The trail app says the hut was just put up this year specifically for TA hikers so hangry Alex was a bit annoyed that these non-TA hikers were using the whole thing. Their group makeup was also weird. I’m not one to speculate but if I was I would say they looked like some sort of cult to me. They were doing some weird things that left all of us perplexed. 

Anywhoo, Charlie, Peter and I took quick baths in the freezing cold river. Charlie did more shouting then washing. After that we all quickly got to work on dinner. Ethan and I had pesto pasta and a pita. We did the dishes and were off to bed, in our tents, because the cult took the hut, but i’m not mad, as i’m sure you can tell. 

-Alex