Day 56 - Upper Wairoa Hut to Mt Rintoul Hut, 22 km, 8 hours 30 minutes

A big day! Another 2000 meter climb day all up, and I was pretty done in at the end of it.

Within a couple of kilometres of starting, I passed the 1100km milestone - only 2 milestones left!


The first couple of hours were spent following the Wairoa River down to Mid Wairoa Hut. Generally speaking it was easy going, interspersed with sections of very dodgy terrain - the kind of track you want to maintain concentration on.
Then started a hard climb up a long ridgeline to Tarn Hut. The hut itself was 100 vertical meters down off the track. I'd heard the tarn was good for swimming in so I dumped pack on the track and headed down to the hut.  However the tarn, being in the bush, was very tanniny and I wasn't tempted - I prefer to see what I'm swimming in!  Still after a fair few hours on a water-less ridge I needed my water bottles replenished, so that was something.

 Anyone who has had a long day's tramping with a heavy pack will know that feeling when you take it off - you feel so light you might fly. After I regained the ridge and my pack climbing up from the tarn I experienced the opposite affect. Donning my pack it felt about 10kg heavier, to the point I suspected some passerby had loaded me up with rocks. Not a pleasant sensation!

Carrying on some fantastic views opened out of Tasman Bay.

By this time I was pretty done in, and looking forward to the hut. The hut is immediately underneath the very steep and exposed massif of Mt Rintoul, which I'll be climbing tomorrow, something I'm a bit nervous about.

After a beautiful sunset over Nelson and Tasman Bay, I'm now enjoying Nelson's lights as I write this. It's bizarre that I'm so close to the city, but on a difficult, alpine track, about to climb the highest peak in the Richmond's.

Day 55 Porters Creek Hut to Upper Wairoa Hut, 16.4km, 6 hours 10 minutes

A second day in the Richmond Ranges. My target was to try to do a big day and get to Middle Wairoa Hut.  According to my trail notes this was a 12 hour haul although I typically knock a fair bit off those times. As it turned out, a sore knee and marginal timing now that daylight hours are shortening saw me pull the pin after 7 hours.

It was another day on very Australian terrain.

It required some care on footing, the rocks were sharp and could really mess you up if you tripped on them.

The morning saw me heading up valley towards Mt Ellis. The first few hours was easy going to Hunters Hut, with just a few sharpish ups and downs to remind me I was in the Richmond's. Near the hut I surprised a goat on track, or rather we surprised each other. Even if I hadn't seen him, I'd have definitely smelt him on the way past!

It was a bit of a long climb, although not very steep - a haul rather than a grunt. Near the top, excitement! Tasman Bay, seemingly just down a couple of ridge lines - my first view of the sea for over a thousand kilometers, and a tangible pointer that the end is nearing.


Then down to the hut. It's nicely nestled in the bush. I like the old Forest Service orange that DOC have painted the huts through here - a nice nod to the past.

It looks like I'll have the hut to myself again tonight - I'm loving liberally spreading my stuff  around the hut.

I may try a bigger day tomorrow instead - if not I will need to have a very short day the day after. There is a difficult and exposed climb coming up over Mt Rintoul that I want to tackle fresh in the morning, which is dictating somewhat which huts I want to use; Mt Rintoul Hut is immediately before this climb.

Day 54 - St Arnaud to Porters Creek Hut, 27.7km, 7 hours

Today I started my journey through the Richmond Ranges. After stopping for breakfast in St Arnaud I headed up the road towards the Red Hills, the entry point to the Richmond's.

After 11km of road bashing I was into the Red Hills. 
The first section, up to Red Hills Hut, was nice and easy, 5 or so 6 easy kilometres.
The real Richmond's started after the hut, with another 11km of walking to Porters Creek Hut. The track, like the geography it followed, was up and down and all over the place.  Something I suspect I might have to become used to over the next few days. There were labyrinthine valleys and ridges heading off in all directions. It'd be very easy to get lost in here. It made for hard going, negotiating deeply incised side streams, and occasionally traversing or crossing ridge lines.

I've been really looking forward to coming through the Red Hills - I've intended to go tramping in here for many years but never got around to it.  It's a fascinating place. Almost uniquely in New Zealand, the soil is extremely high in iron and other more exotic minerals, such that the bush is stunted like what you get just above the bushline. Certainly I haven't travelled anywhere remotely similar to this in New Zealand. Actually it's rather Australia-esque, especially with the reddish soil and rock.  I found it weird to traverse from one hill to the next, in the process moving from thick beech to stunted bush, like my altitude had changed by a thousand meters within a few steps.

I say it's almost unique to New Zealand, because there is a red mountain down in Fiordland, identical to this Marlborough area. This is no coincidence of course. While they started in the same range, the two areas are on opposite sides of the Alpine fault. Through fault shearing, aka earthquakes, this area has been shunted 1000km north of where it started.
So to the hut. I was hoping for a sunset to illuminate the iron coloured hillsides in red. I got a sunset alright, but it didn't light up the hills for me. Oh well, I still got some decent photos.

Random fact, I'm now in the Motueka River catchment. Man, big catchment, no wonder that river floods so badly. Anyway, the Motueka River runs to the north coast! Another portent of the end (in a good rather than apocalyptic way!).

Hiatus 8 - St Arnaud for 1 day

Staying up the hill a bit at my friend's place has been pretty idyllic. The rain was in today, so largely an inside day. Not that I minded. I had a brief outing to resupply for the Richmond Ranges - the last big push - 8 or so days in the bush.
A bit of a spanner tonight, with the only restaurant in town closed for the night. I couldn't bring myself to eat dehydrated while I was in town. Just as well I'd bought a bag of corn chips. More quality cuisine!

The forecast is good for tomorrow, so on the trail again. Should be beautiful. Should be hard going. Looking forward to it.... Kinda.

Day 53 - John Tait Hut to St Arnaud, 23.5km, 5 hours 30 minutes

An easy day down the Travers Valley to and then along the side of the beautiful Lake Rotoiti.

The day started with an excellent sunrise - the first I've had for a while. I haven't been up early enough to see many, but with car fever kicking in I was keen to get to St Arnaud ASAP. I'd better describe what car fever is. When tramping towards the end of a day it's common to get hut fever - a finite burst of energy when you think the hut is close. It can be devastating when it turns out the hut is further away than you thought. Anyway car fever is just a subset of that - when you are getting near the end a tramp and are looking forward to getting back to the car. In my case there is no car of course, but I've been really looking forward to getting back into cell coverage so I can phone home, and that's been driving me on for a few days.  Long story short, I was on track early!

I was down valley pretty quickly and stopped at Lakehead Hut for an early lunch. I've always been a bit meh about this hut. There is nothing wrong with it per se, but one of the  one of the most beautiful lakes in the country is about 500 meters away, which is enough that it's a pain to go for a swim. What's more, it has one of my favourite huts barely a kilometer away across the river. That hut, Coldwater Hut has it's own jetty, and being constructed from stone is a beautiful hut, if somewhat bastardised by recently having had its porch filled in. It's also aptly named, the Travis River which flows into Lake Rotoiti here is MUCH colder than the rest of the lake. But anyway, I wasn't stopping at Lakehead for anything more than a snack.

I forged on down the side of the lake, a front country bit of track that I finished in little more than an hour passing many overnight and day walkers picking their way across mud and streams rock by rock. I don't bother with that - clump, clump, clump on through. 

I don't know if it's the time of year, but the wasp eradication program seems to be going well.  The forest here is normally abuzz with them, literally, but the forest was peaceful coming through.



And so to St Arnaud, and the point where I leave the last lake on trail.

I'd booked into a hotel in St Arnaud and was in the foyer when I pretty much banged into a work friend who was up at his bach from Motueka. Turns out I got to stay there instead. Thanks Andrew!

Day 52 - West Sabine Hut to John Tait Hut, 13.5km, 6 hours

I am done! ... with my original pair of socks. Having done more than a thousand kilometres they are getting threadbare and have been relegated to hut socks.  My pristine hut socks now get the chance to step up to the plate.

It's Easter weekend - today is Easter Sunday - so I've been sharing the huts with the great unwashed masses. Unfortunately for the great unwashed masses, I am an even more unwashed mass/mess. In any case, being Easter Sunday, I started the morning by going around the hut handing out Easter eggs - there was much gratitude.
Today also marks April Fools and the end of daylight savings. A triple whammy. Normally I love the extra hour of sleep, but it's completely irrelevant to me here - I'm well and truly into the routine of operating with the sun.

Today I had a climb to match the recent Waiau Pass; this time 1000 meters to the Travers - Sabine Saddle.
Maybe I'm getting fit, but it was easy. There were a couple of hundred steep meters close to the bush line, but apart from that nothing to write home about and I did it largely without stopping.

Near the start of the climb the Sabine River is crossed, far above a fearsome chasm. The river can be barely spied in the dark below, but certainly can be heard!


Above the bush line the path of the east and west Sabine Valleys can be easily made out below. My hut from last night is close to the confluence of the two rivers.

The views expand a little further at the saddle itself.  The Arthur Range in behind Motueka can be made out to the northwest - a first visible indication that I'm approaching the north coast!
Then it's down the other side of the into the upper Travers - the top of the Travers River is quite picturesque.


I stopped at Upper Travers Hut, which has sensational views of the saddle, intending to stay the night. After a few hours here and with a dodgy weather forecast for tomorrow, I changed my mind and headed down valley to shorten tomorrow's walking.

The Travers is another beautiful river. The track goes directly beside it - it's quite marvellous. But I was feeling a bit blasé about it. It was a gentler version of my adrenaline filled Sabine walk from yesterday, so perhaps this was inevitable.


There's nothing like a big waterfall to snap the feeling of "I've seen all of this before". The Travers plummets through a gorge, similar to the Sabine from this morning, and exits in this spectacular cascade.


Shortly after I arrived at my accommodation for the night, John Tait Hut. Somehow there was no-one in residence, despite the fact it is only a day's walk from St Arnaud, although 2 people turned up later. Nevertheless after a full hut for each of the last two nights I'm looking forward to a quiet night.

Day 51 - Blue Lake Hut to West Sabine Hut, 6.9km, 2 hours 20 minutes

Both the shortest and the most adrenaline packed day of the walk.

After hard yakka over the pass yesterday, I had been planning a zero day today. After a good sleep I woke to rain, but was feeling good. Normally you might see a day of rain as a chance to hunker down in a hut. However I'd been looking forward to enjoying the lake and the upper Sabine River (Blue Lake is the source for the Sabine). With a day of rain that was now off the cards, and with the hut quickly filling up with easter trampers in early afternoon I decided to head down valley a tad to make tomorrow's walk (another climbing day) shorter.
Heading out you could see why I wasn't keen on toodling around in the Sabine River.


Further down valley there were a number of avalanche zones. Obviously there's no trouble with snow this time of year, but an avalanche zone is also a natural fall line for rocks. With the rain getting heavier, with a consummate risk of rock fall, I was keen to get across these areas pretty quickly, especially when I came across a boulder field with trees snapped off like metaphorical matchsticks.


Not more than a minute later there was a peel somewhat like thunder from high on Mt Franklin. I knew immediately what it was - a boulder had dislodged high on the mountain, anything up to a thousand meters above me - and was heading my way. As the noise grew I backed off watchfully in the probably futile hope that I might be able to dodge it if it came close. With an explosion of noise and water it dropped into the river 50 meters in front of me, sending a plume up to 20 meters into the air. With wide eyes I double timed out of there.


With the rain continuing hard the track was turning into a fairly large stream.
Large side streams were careering into the Sabine with little run-out, requiring a lot of care in their crossing - definitely not the place to lose footing!


The Sabine itself had become a maelstrom. I was keen to stay as far as possible away from it.

I was pleased to see the hut!