St James Walkway

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December 12, 2007

Today began with us being just as far from the trail, and actually possibly farther than yesterday, despite having spent hours on the road yesterday. But today would be different. Hitchhiking at first produced nothing until the owner of the motor park arranged for us to ride twenty-five kilometers with a delivery truck. The truck driver left us in Reefton and we stuck our thumbs out again. Within half an hour a guy drove up in a crappy red car, which he said cost him $300. I mention the price and the crappiness because it is overwhelmingly the case that people with crappy cars and noticeably lower economic situations are the ones who nine times out of ten will give us hitchhikers a ride. We have yet to get a ride from someone driving a luxury vehicle and we’ve gotten close to fifty rides at this point. All I can say is that it would be nice to see someone with means who wasn’t too snooty to stop for a hitchhiker.
Anyway, the guy in the red car drove us about 120 kilometers to Lewis Pass, where we got onto the St. James Walkway. Then we began the first leg of five days on the trail again. With our backpacks heavy with food we trudged through the rain for three hours until we got to the Ada Pass Hut near Ada Pass. It is a nice little hut where it’s good to be out of the rain again. The forecast calls for rain for the next four days, so we may have to endure it for most of this walk.

December 13, 2007

Today was a good day. When I woke up this morning, the first thing I saw was rain pelting the hut window and I assumed we were in for it. Fortunately, though, the clouds broke up by the time we left at 11 a.m. It turned out to be a great time for walking, as there was just the right level of cloud cover and the temperature wasn’t too hot.
We had only a short walk to the next hut at just over two and a half hours, which gave us time to slow the pace and really enjoy the scenery. That should be the trend for this track as it will be a nice section to take it easy on, and hopefully get rid of some of the muscle soreness.
The track came up over the Ada Saddle and then followed a gentle trail through a river valley with towering ranges on both sides. The valley is fairly flat at the bottom and is about half a mile wide at this point.
We are crossing through the St. James cattle station, so there are many cows scattered about in the valley.
The weather stayed nice until we arrived at the Christopher Hut and has only turned rainy again as the evening approached. Hopefully the pattern will be clear skies while we hike, and the rain will hold off until we’re under a roof.

December 14, 2007

I had a very pleasant sleep last night despite the sleep hallucination episode that scared Eric last night, but now is providing plenty of entertainment for him. With no rain falling once I woke up we decided to set out earlier than planned at just after 9:00 a.m.
The track was great, following the river further and into an even wider flat called Ada Flats. Situated in the flats is the main part of the cattle station where we saw a truck herding some horses. I’m not sure how the people get into this valley, though, as I haven’t seen any passable roads as we walk nor are there any roads marked on the maps.
Soon we turned and began to follow a different river up a parallel valley to the west. Crossing field after field, our only companions were the cows and horses grazing in them. After three and a half hours we arrived at Anne Hut, which has a floorplan exactly the same as Christopher Hut from last night, so it almost felt like we hadn’t left at all. Tonight we will try to make pancakes over the wood stove, which could be interesting.

December 15, 2007

Pancakes were a near disaster last night, since we tried to begin cooking much too early before the stove was good and hot. I’m not blaming anyone in particular, but let’s just say that it wasn’t me doing the cooking… Anyway, we ate the crappy pancakes and looked forward to tomorrow’s meal of burritos, which is almost impossible to screw up.
Our hiking took us up 250 meters over a gentle saddle and then steeply down the other side. Once we got to the valley floor we began the bulk of our day’s walk, which was mostly flat.
The walking was easy, as most of this particular track has been. The highlight of the day came when a herd of bulls appeared to be encircling us. Some began running right at me, but with a little yelling and waving of my arms I was able to convince them to stop and change course. These cows are such stupid animals. Then we got to the Boyle Flats Hut and thought we had it to ourselves until an annoying group crashed the party and ruined our peace and quiet. Oh well, I guess we can’t always have huts to ourselves.
**Correction**
This entry erroneously stated that the highlight of the day was when the bulls encircled and charged at us. That was true at the time of writing, but has since been surpassed by my achievement of a great feat. Tonight playing Yahtzee I rolled three Yahtzees in one game giving me an all-time personal high score of 404. It was so awesome that Eric left the table in disgust upon the third one being rolled- a moment that I will not soon forget.

December 16, 2007

Emerging from the woods today was where the interesting part of the day began. Just before noon we began our attempt to hitchhike along a quiet highway. After about thirty cars and a half hour passed, a small blue car driven by an American woman pulled up. She offered us a lift to Hanmer Springs (about sixty kilometers down the road) and to my surprise also asked me to drive. I was shocked, but accepted the offer, since it was just another part of the adventure.
I have never driven on the left side of the road legally and also never driven a car with the steering wheel on the right side. All at once I was doing both. It didn’t take long to get used to driving, except that I was hugging the shoulder instead of the centerline, and was driving fifteen kilometers per hour under the speed limit because of the windy mountain roads.
Once I dropped us off (that sounds strange to say) we got picked up again very quickly by a guy in a crappy van. Fortunately, he would be able to take us all the way to Christchurch. Unfortunately, his van would nearly overheat along the way. He didn’t know what to do so I suggested cranking the heat to take the heat off the engine, but when that wasn’t enough we pulled over before it stopped working altogether. Once he let it cool down we resumed driving and he decided to go slower so as not to overwork the engine. He was a very nice guy despite his lack of sense. I’m glad the ride held up long enough for us to get to the city.
Once in the city, we checked into a hostel and Eric began getting his “famous” Cannelloni ready for dinner. Christchurch appears to be a very nice city and is easy to get around in the downtown area.

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