Day 68: Preparing for the South Island
December 17, 2019
Kilometers: 1695.5
YHA Wellington
Today is our last zero day before starting the South Island. We have a bunch of preparing to do before we get on the ferry tomorrow morning. The South Island is much different than the north island. The north island has 77% of the countries total population. With a much smaller population there will be significantly less towns and other opportunities to resupply for the remainder of the hike.
This reality makes TA hikers think far ahead for resupplying. We are currently at kilometer 1695 and will need to package and ship ahead our food for the next 600+ kms until we get to the town of Methven at km 2355. Between now and then we will only resupply at a grocery once, in havelock.
Basically, sending out your resupply boxes is something you really need to do correctly. It’s not like there’s many options in the mountains to find an extra dinner if you under pack by a day. On top of this I have a few new considerations to account for when packing. All the resupplies I’ve done so far have been accounting for both Ethan and myself. Now I need to only pack for one.
Additionally, i’m going to start counting calories for my resupply food. Although I’ve gained about three pounds since starting the hike I’ve gone down from a pant size 32 to a 30. I need to make sure I can keep my weight up on the South Island by knowing i’m getting at least over 2,500 calories a day. Getting more than that in camping food is quite hard. I’ve also put in an effort to gain a few more pounds the last couple of days before starting the South Island.
After eating a breakfast of yesterday’s leftovers the three of us set off for the grocery store to buy food for the next month. I don’t even know what i’m gonna want to eat tomorrow so imagine how hard it is to predict a month out. After buying everything (including over 100 breakfast bars) I came back to the hostel to sort everything out. Charlie and Peter returned shortly after me. Our room was to small for all the food sorting so we took over a common area in the hostel.
It took a few hours to repackage the food to make it less bulky, go pick up boxes, pack the boxes and then carry the heavy boxes to the post office. We sent a total of five boxes to three different locations along the trail, St. Arnaud, Boyle Village and Arthur’s Pass. Many people in the hostel gave us funny looks while other hikers there asked us questions about sending the resupply boxes like we were seasoned pros.
After the hardest part of the day was over I set off to grab the last few items I needed before starting the South Island. I got sunscreen, wilderness soap and looked for a accessory to attach my tripod to my phone. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find one under $100 so I opted against it. I wanted this because I will be putting the camera in the bounce box for the South Island. I just didn’t use it enough for its weight and the iPhone 10 actually takes better quality pictures anyway.
I returned to the hostel, showered, and then packed up my bounce box. The absolute barrenness of the South Island will force me to send the box super far down the trail. I am sending it to Wanaka, ~800 kms away. Because I won’t be able to get into my bounce box for that long I added some items. I added a third pair of socks for when the ones i’m hiking in now completely fall apart, extra duct tape for when my shoes fall completely apart, and extra cosmetic things such as more pairs of contacts.
I also tossed my Altra lone Pine shoes in the bounce box and grabbed my third pair, Hoka One Challenger ATR 5s. When walking into Wellington the other day I noticed a tear in the side meshing of the altras. I was pissed because my first pair of identical shoes went about 1100km before ripping and were eventually thrown out in Whanganui at km 1350. This second pair only went about 350km. Guess it goes to show just how rough the Tararuas were. I hope my hoka ones can survive until I reach my bounce box again in Wanaka. The only shoes I have left in the bounce box now are the ripped altras, which I plan to duct tape and wear again at some point, and a pair of Solomon trail runners that Ethan left for me as an emergency pair of shoes. He threw out the inserts so they aren’t the best option right now but it’s good to have another pair.
I carried my bounce box to the post office and shipped it. I headed back to the grocery store to get food before returning to the hostel. Charlie and Peter left to finish the end of the north island. It was pouring rain so they didn’t quite enjoy it as much as when we finished on Saturday.
When they got back we bought some beers and drank them at the hostel while the last load of laundry was done. After laundry we met a group of four TA hikers for drinks at a nearby bar. Some of them started just a day after us yet we hadn’t seen them at all so far.
We only stayed for a bit as it was getting late and we have an early ferry to catch tomorrow morning to Picton and then another one to ship cove. Our time in Wellington was awesome but I can’t wait to get back on the trail.