Day 66: Goodbye, White Sugar

December 15, 2019

Kilometers: 1695.5

Marion Hostel in Wellington 

Although it hasn’t been mentioned on our blog yet Ethan’s trail name for the last few weeks has been White Sugar. The name is a combination of his pasty complexion and what his diet would be if left completely up to him. Not sure if we have gone into a single store/grocery/market this whole trip without him buying some sort of candy, soda or cookies. At one point he jokingly (?) talked about filling his camelbak with Mountain Dew. 

In yesterday’s post Ethan explained that he will be headed back to DC tomorrow. When I pictured arriving in Bluff that vision had both Ethan and I in it, popping Champaign bottles at Stirling Point together. However, he has decided to end his hike here and head home. I’ll use this blog post as an opportunity to discuss how this changes things for me going forward. 

The first thing I’ll mention is that i’m losing a really great teammate and brother. White Sugar is my fricken dude. Ethan is super smart and always finds solutions to problems we face on the trail. Losing his brain is definitely going to make the trail more difficult. He’s always making jokes and keeps the mood upbeat. Charlie, Peter and I will all miss his humor a lot. I’ll also miss having someone I can relate to, talk with about things back home, and just someone that understands me so well. There will undoubtedly be a big hole left in our group. 

This change will also impact the logistical side of things. Coming into this hike I knew it was possible that E would only hike the north island. In preparation for this possibility I have been carrying basically everything I would take as a solo hiker the whole trip. I’ve been carrying the necessities like the first aid kit, repair kit, stove and fuel the whole time. I will have to add only a few items to my pack with his absence. These include the Personal Locator Beacon (PLB), my bowl and spork, and sunscreen. Ethan has been carrying these items thus far, luckily they won’t add more than a pound to my pack. 

I was completely prepared to hike the length of Te Araroa on my own. I got lucky that Ethan was able to join me for a huge portion of it. I hope his experiences have been as amazing as mine so far. 

I was fortunate enough to have met Charlie and Peter on day one. Our personalities go really well together and i’m super excited to tackle the South Island with them. 

Oh yea, we also did a few things today. The four of us spent the morning complaining about being hungover from our north island completion party last night. We eventually went to brunch and uncharacteristically ate turkey burgers (health). After that we ran some errands such as buying groceries for dinner, ending Ethan’s phone plan and retrieving my jacket from the bar which happened to be misplaced during our celebration last night.

After our errands we all headed to the bar closest to our hostel. Ada invited an American hiker, Lizzie, who is just starting the trail and only hiking the South Island, to join us. The six of us had a few beers and talked about the trail past and future. 

After that Lizzie headed back to her hostel as she was pretty jet lagged while the five of us went back to our hostel for dinner. Yesterday Charlie and Peter met a French woman who offered up a raclette machine for us to borrow for dindin. We had a proper French/Swiss dinner of melted cheese over vegetables with some wine. The other hostel stayers were quite impressed with our set up. 

After dinner we headed upstairs to bed. After a big day of celebrating yesterday we needed our sleep, and Ethan has a morning flight. 

Ethan is a goddamn hiker warrior and I have been extremely lucky to spend the last two months walking with him. He walked over 1,000 miles through some wild terrain, just think for a second about the effort and drive that takes. I couldn’t have asked for a better person to do the north island with. 

For the rest of us, our South Island planning starts tomorrow. As the former linebacker Bart Scott once famously said “Cant wait!”

-Alex 

Also since i’m gonna be the only one writing blogs from here on out i’m gonna stop signing off with the “-Alex”.