12 December 2019

The Original Plan: Christmas Village to Yankee River
The New Plan: Christmas Village to somewhere near Yankee River
Steps: 37,791
Floors Climbed: 33
Distance: 28.1km
Tantrums: 4
Pity Parties: 1

I met some new people in the morning (asleep by the time I arrived last night) who were heading in the opposite direction, two Auckland couples in their 60's who had come down and arrived by water taxi to hike back to Oban. They then planned to fly to East Ruggedy Beach with a beach landing and hike along from there to Freshwater and ferry on to Oban. Interesting combination, these hikes have many possibilities.

After cooking up my eggs and brewing the tea for the day, off I went again. I was slightly disappointed not doing the planned side trip up Hananui (Mt Anglem), I really hope it was cloudy up there so I wasn't missing anything. A day scrambling up mud without the pack would have been a nice break but I can always come back.

I was at my limit and beyond yesterday, really thought of giving up or having a rest day but I had no reception to arrange a water taxi for the last day. Sleep, breakfast and chatting with fellow hikers helped get me through it though. So I decided I’ll just have to suck it up and get moving!

Fun fact: trekking poles and FitBits don't work well together, I know I did a lot more than 33 floors elevation today but somehow when climbing using the poles it doesn't notice you're climbing as much as you are. Maybe a fancy-pants one that measures elevation with a GPS would pick it up better, I'd love to know how much climbing I did each day.

Today was, honestly, the most gruelling day of my life. It started rather well but the mud I’d experienced previously was in hill form which makes for some epic scrambling!

I discovered, even in Flight Mode with no reception or data, my iPhone can still show me where I am on a map. That helped me work out where I was and how slowly I was really going (very).

“Oh you’re the guy who gave all his beer away at Port William!”

This was a group of hikers doing their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and I have no idea how my reputation had spread around this island given they were coming from the other direction! Their leader was lagging behind with a twisted ankle so not sure if this part of the award had covered “do not leave someone behind”, but it seemed to me to be a bad idea!

They reckoned my lunch spot on the ironically-named Lucky Beach was about 2 hours away….yeah it wasn’t, I arrived at 5:15pm. Greeted by a cloud of sandflies as I sat on the grass in the rain eating my tuna on crackers; annoyingly the highlight of my day’s menu (a Snickers bar) I had forgotten to put in my bumbag and was basically unreachable without unpacking everything. This was not a day that screamed “treats” anyway!

There was a basic little campsite there with a back country toilet shed but no other shelter so I had my little Pity Party on the grass in the rain with my sad little Snickers-free lunch and my sand fly buddies.

So I mentioned it had started raining, this made the upcoming mud whole new levels of sloppy. It wasn’t even sticky anymore. After yearning for soil after 200m of the rocks along “Lucky” Beach, up I clambered through the steep hill among the ferns, panga and mud. Oodles of the stuff, sometimes literally pulling myself up by tree roots!

After a lengthy slog, I found my iPhone screen was wet (along with everything else) so I couldn’t use the touch screen. My location would be a mystery from here on!

I came on this hike for a memorable adventure and today was certainly that. I slogged as fast and hard as I could manage, 7pm, 8pm, 9pm (soon right?), 10pm (merde)...by 10:30pm it was too dark to see the markers as they don’t reflect under torch light, I was following the muddy footprints and the white fern leaves spread along the path (not sure who puts these there). I decided the wisest decision was to pitch the tent and wait until daylight.

After getting the tent up in a patch between two logs at the trackside, I fished out dry clothes for my “pillow”, sleeping bag, bedroll and threw them in with my Personal Locator Beacon and bum bag. My pack stayed outside, it was wet anyway and the contents had a pack liner so stayed nice and dry. Waterproof boots likewise outside upside-down. Some comical fumbling to change into my thermals and woolly hat in a tiny one-man tent, and I was dressed warmly, inflated the bedroll and spread the sleeping bag out. It was cold but once I put some thick socks on I was fine, when I awoke about 5am it was super cosy!

A key thing to remember, they're not kidding when they say to be prepared. I had no plans to use the tent unless a hut was full; I was so glad I had it though, otherwise I would have had to keep going through the dark and risk getting lost.

Amid the soft rain on the tent and a few gusts of wind, I also heard a few Kiwi wandering about. As I said earlier they’re such teases!

I was armed with warm things, a PLB and knew I was on the track. There was no need to be worried so I wasn’t, just disappointed as I felt this meant I couldn’t continue the rest of the hike.