Day 33: Hut Life
November 12, 2019
Kilometers: 790.2-805.8
Stream Campsite to Pauhatea Hut
Last night was cold... finally. I wore my thermals to bed and slept like a baby. I woke up at 7:20am to the sound of the others rustling around outside their tents. Knowing I was definitely behind, I quickly bandaged up my toes as I have been for a few days now. Despite the multiple pieces of tape per toe, I’m getting pretty quick at it.
I managed to break down my tent somewhat quickly and get out as the morning sun started turning my tent into an oven despite the cool temperature outside. Alex told the Belgians “it’s shaping up to be the best weather day so far.” Oh was he wrong.
I gathered the rest of my things and decided not to fill up my water to max until halfway through the day as I wouldn’t need much before we got to the climb. We crossed the creek we camped at and the guys quickly got out ahead of me as I was eating my bars.
After coming around a blind turn, I found myself face to face with about a dozen bulls. Terrified, I quickly backtracked and went over the hill to the side and found the others waiting. As Alex mentioned yesterday, I may have partially overcome my fear of heights on this trip but now I’m petrified by cows.
We crossed through a gate and were back on the road again. From there, we had about four kilometers while slowly climbing through the countryside.
We came to a creek where the road disappears in the above picture and took a right onto a tamping track. We followed the easy going track for about three kilometers.
There was a great stream running alongside the track which we would eventually resupply our water from.
We followed the creek up to a DOC campsite where we filled our water to our max level and had a quick snack before the long climb ahead of us.
Right as we pulled the food bag out, it started to pour and Alex and I gathered our stuff and headed to the woods for cover. We took a selfie under cover right before we set off.
We set off with a fast pace to get out of the open and out of the rain. The trail was relatively easy going considering how large of a climb we had. We were expecting it to be much muddier than it actually was despite the fact that it had been raining for a good portion of the morning.
The first five kilometers breezed by as Alex and I managed to walk them in less than two hours. The last kilometer up to the first viewpoint became very steep and muddy with complex root systems the whole way up. At the end, we reached the first viewpoint of the day. Our prayers had been answered and the poor weather had cleared just enough for us to get a spectacular view.
Within 15 minutes of sitting down for another snack, the clouds pushed back through and we knew we had to get a move on it as we still had to summit Pirongia.
The first 400 meters were slightly downhill through an equally as muddy and steep track. I started to have some flashbacks of Raetea Forest.
The mud eventually gave way for a boardwalk which took us most of the way to Pirongia’s summit where we were able to get another great view.
As the storm continued to bear down on us, we kept moving towards the hut which was just a few hundred meters away. The stretch was about half boardwalk and half muddy slopes again.
At about 1:45pm, we reached the Pahautea Hut, the first hut in New Zealand’s backcountry hut system.
The hut has water, toilets, and enough bunks for 20 people. There is unfortunately no power. Up at 900 meters, it is quite cold and the constant wind along the ridge makes it even colder.
Alex took a shower using a liter of water in the freezing cold and I washed off my legs. Shortly after, I lost my 2nd toenail of the trip. This has been expected for sometime so it was a bit of a relief.
Afterwards, we ate the rest of our lunch, made some tea, and by 3, all of us were bundled up in thermals and napping.
At 5, we all woke up and figured out who else had arrived during our slumber.
We made a dinner of couscous with salami and brown onion gravy. Alex was thrilled when he heard we were going to have salami again.
Tonight is going to be cold again which should make for a nice sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a really tough day as we are aiming to do 27km. The first 5 kilometers tomorrow are supposed to be terribly muddy and slow going. Can’t wait!
-Ethan