Day 95: Yea, This is Why I’m Here
January 13, 2020
Kilometers: 2260.2-2281.4
Comyns Hut to Manuka Hut
When I woke up Janina, Tracey and the German hiker were all gone. With an easier type day ahead of us I was in no rush. I laid in my bunk listening to music and playing games on my phone until 8. When we were all up we started on the big breakfast we had planned.
Unfortunately, we did not have a spatula so we were flipping pancakes with a can lid that we had from the canned pineapple the night before. It wasn’t great but was the best we could do. As we made more and more pancakes the better they got. We then cooked up 500 grams of bacon. It took about 5 batches to get it all done. The breakfast took about an hour to make and we scarfed it all down in about five minutes. We wrapped the bacon inside the pancakes and ate them like tacos. I bet it’s the best breakfast that’s ever been cooked in that hut.
Our time consuming cooking and the clean up that followed didn’t allow us to get onto the trail until just after 10.
From the hut we had about six kms going upstream. The trail was the stream as each trail marker pole switched from one side of the river to other. The ladies said they counted 64 river crossings today. I don’t think I have the attention span to keep count like that.
The cold mountain water numbed my feet pretty quickly. I would move my feet around in my shoes as much as possible to try to regain feeling in them.
After just under two hours walking upstream we veered off towards the saddle. The open tussock mountain setting was quite something.
I reached the saddle after Peter and Charlie and they hadn’t stopped at the top. I couldn’t help but sit down and soak in the views as I had a snack. You can see Charlie as a little black dot in some of these pics walking across the gray scree.
I only stopped for about 10 minutes and then restarted as the clouds overhead started to turn a stormy color. Luckily, they held off all day.
After crossing a few scree sections we made our way down to Heron Lake basin. The scenery transformed from tussock mountains to a dry western landscape.
The last seven kms were on a pretty flat 4WD track. The headwind sometimes gusted but wasn’t too much of an issue. We arrived at the hut at 3 to find the other three there.
We all bathed in the river, took a short nap and then played Rikiki. I snacked on my excess of food as we played.
For dinner I ate my last freeze dried meal that I purchased in Wellington. I will be buying approximately zero more. I’d rather eat pesto pasta every night for the next month than have any more. I had chicken tikki masala, bringing my freeze dried meals full circle as that was the first one I had back in the Tararuas.
After dinner we realized there was a stray dog wandering around the hut. Apparently he followed a couple 12kms up the valley and when that couple saw people going back that way they asked them to take him. The second couple is tenting outside the hut and will be taking him to a vet when they get out of the backcountry. He is quite far from wherever home is. He took a liking to me and followed me around while I did my daily tasks like cleaning water for tomorrow. We gave him a can of tuna for dinner. Hopefully he can get back to civilization safely.
I’ve loved every day of this trip. Even the days were i’ve been miserable during some of the hiking they have each had their amazing points, I’ve enjoyed the laughs, challenges and people each day. But today was amazing from beginning to end. I started the day making backcountry pancakes and bacon with friends. The hiking was extremely beautiful and remote, exactly the kind of scenery I had imagined on the South Island. We started late and finished with plenty of time to bath and play cards and eat, not feeling rushed at all. Maybe i’m just starting to appreciate it all more because I know the journey is getting closer to the end. It’s weird how people do that. I’m just really excited that I will be hiking for the next 25 days. Maybe I’ll sit down and enjoy the views instead of gunning it a little bit more.