Day 77: Just Don’t Get Swept Away
December 26, 2019
Kilometers: 1873.2-1895.1
Rintoul Hut to Top Wairoa Hut
Throughout the night we had a weka bird making a bunch of noise on the porch of the hut. Charlie went outside to see it trying to eat his soap at one point, dumb bird.
We were packed up and walking just before 7:40. We are really starting to get into a good routine in the morning where we get hiking quickly. We started by climbing along yet another wooded ridge. There were some openings that allowed us to get a view of the surrounding mountains.
The woods eventually ended and a rocky climb stood in between us and the summit of Purple Top. The climb wasn’t too bad, or maybe we’re just getting used to them. During the climb we were able to see the clouds below us in the valley. When we reached the summit we could see this on both sides of the mountain.
From the summit we followed the ridge line walking over huge rocks. It was amazing weather, we could see for miles in every direction, and even better we hadn’t seen any other people for over a day. A hikers utopia.
The ridge eventually took us back into the forest and we headed down to Tarn Hut. All tarns I have seen in person are typically in open rocky terrain. I was surprised to see it surrounded by trees. We took a break at the hut and had a snack.
After a quick climb from tarn hut we finally left the ridge and the high country. The next 5.5km where nearly straight down to the Wairoa River. Some of the trail in this section was just covered in leaves, no rocks or roots, making it perfect to let gravity do the work and jog down the slopes. The trail notes for this section said 5 hours but we made it in about 2 hours. We are always way faster than the conservative trail note estimates but I don’t remember ever only taking 40% of the time they claim it will take.
We also saw some very interesting fungi or something of the sort that had taken over many pieces of wood and fallen trees turning it a turquoise color.
The end of the descent had a swing bridge that crossed the Wairoa River. These bridges were scary at first but now we don’t even think twice about crossing them.
We had lunch at Mid Wairoa Hut. It was perfect weather out but the sandflies chased us inside the hut to eat. We had made such quick progress so far that we rewarded ourselves with a twenty minute cat nap.
From the hut we followed the river upstream for the next 7kms. This section was notorious for its eight crossings of the river. This is where the American hiker had gotten washed downstream earlier in the season and required assistance from search and rescue to get out of the backcountry.
The section started by climbing next to the river on steep cliffs. Some of the places we had to step were not as wide as my feet. At one point there was a chain in the side of the cliff to help hikers. Where the heck was that yesterday?
The river was beautiful but very fast. It was quite easy to see how someone could lose their footing and get swept away. After a few kms we got to the area where the majority of the river crossings were.
As has become normal, Peter volunteered to be the guinea pig. For the first crossing he made it halfway across to a big rock. He proceeded to toss his poles and pack across and then standing broad jumped the last half of the river. Not seeing any better way Charlie and I followed suit.
Not all of the remaining crossings were this exciting but each one required extreme caution and perfect foot placement. The river had legitimate waterfalls and was moving fast at all parts. For one of them we crossed in between two huge cascading waterfalls. It definitely got the heart pumping a bit.
We completed our last crossing and knew we were only 100 meters from the hut. We didn’t think it would be a free climb from the river.
When we got to the hut it was full of other hikers. We were quite upset to say the least. We thought about checking to make sure they all had hut passes but instead just set up our tents.
We took baths and made dinner. I went with a quick backcountry cuisine meal of beef curry. It was good but the sandflies made it hard to enjoy. We were in our tents early because of the flies.
I can give you a one hundred percent McMillen guarantee that we beat every one of those hikers to tomorrow nights hut if they are headed that way. I don’t like sleeping in a tent when there’s a hut with bunks and mattresses right next to us, and I don’t plan on it tomorrow night.