2009 Expedition: The Heaphy track

---

November 13, 2009

Today was another day that ended a long way from where it began. We began the day by being dropped off at the Wellington airport by Mark and Karen. After two flight delays and a very strange band concert/dance performance in the airport terminal, we boarded the flight to Westport. The plane was very small and we were two of only five passengers on the flight.
Once in Westport, we went about trying to hitchhike the 60 miles to the start of the Heaphy Track. Having no luck and limited time to get there, we paid for a transport company to take us instead.
The first section of the track followed the coast for about ten miles, and took us four hours to cover. It was nice walking, listening to the ocean waves crash along the shore as we went. It rained off and on as it is prone to do along the coast, but we had a nice period of sunshine for the second half of the day that lasted until we got to the Heaphy Hut (located at the end of the beach where the track turns inland) just before the sunset. I even got to see several penguins along the shore today, which was a surprise. I’m not sure which variety they are.
At the hut, we made a great pasta dinner with meat sauce. We decided to carry sausage in to the first hut since it would not spoil being out at room temperature for the first day, and it was a nice change from our typical meatless diet.
This walk is one of New Zealand’s “Great Walks,” so the hut is full and there is a hut warden to make sure everyone has paid for their spot. I typically like the non-Great Walk tracks since the huts are typically empty or there are fewer people, but tonight was not too bad to share it with all these people. The hut warden was also very interesting and informative since he has worked in this area his whole life, and he was able to tell us a lot of information and stories about the track.

November 14, 2009

We were the last to leave the hut this morning and were the only ones heading in the east direction on the track, so we saw very few people today. The first two hours of the path followed the Heaphy River inland, away from the beach where the hut from last night was situated. We had heard that the weather was supposed to turn ugly, so we hiked quickly, expecting to get rained on at any moment. Fortunately, the rain did not come during the day, but instead waited until we were done walking for the day.
After the first two hours along the river, the track ceased being flat and began a steady, uphill climb. It maintained this same grade almost completely consistently for the remainder of the day until we arrived at the James Mackay hut, three hours, 2500 vertical feet, and eight miles later. (Altogether, today’s walk was 13 miles.) This last section had us ascending out of the lush vegetation of sea level, through beech forest, and ending up in the much sparser “tops” of the Kahurangi National Park.
At the hut, we spent the remainder of the afternoon watching a total of 15 other people file in, all coming from the opposite direction. Eric and I are by far the youngest people in this hut, and with the conversations going on, it feels like I’m sitting in on a 40-year high school class reunion or something.

November 15, 2009

Nothing motivates a person to hike fast like bad weather. And we did hike quite quickly today, covering 17 miles in less than five hours. The battle to keep my feet dry was hopeless from the start due to the sheets of rain that had been falling since last night, so the only goal for today was to keep them dry for as long as possible. By using ankle gaiters, I managed to keep dry feet for the first three hours; a victory that I chose to focus on for the final two hours of sloshing in my boots.
The track today started in the flattish Gouland Downs area and meandered through large patches of tussock. We were above tree line here at a mere 2400 feet above sea level. This is not because of elevation, but because heavy rain has leached most nutrients out of the soil here over time. Eventually, the tussock ended, and we began to ascend through forest again. The rain intensified and just when I thought I couldn’t possibly be any wetter, we arrived the Perry Saddle Hut, perched at the highest point along this track. We were soon joined by four other people in their 20’s (Yeah!) coming from the other direction. An Italian guy, a French girl, a guy from San Francisco, and another guy from Boulder, Colorado of all places. It’s strange, but of all the Americans we’ve met, a very large number of them have been from our home state of Colorado.

November 16, 2009

Everyone in the hut this morning waited until late to get started, as it was still howling and pouring outside. Eric and I were the last to depart at 11am. This was our last leg of the Heaphy since we are headed northeast, but everyone else was only starting day two of four going in the other direction. (It turns out 99%!o(MISSING)f people doing this track go the opposite way from how we did it… it figures that we’d be the guys doing it backwards.) Within minutes of stepping out the hut door in all our raingear, I was surprised (happily) to see the sun breaking through the clouds. Finally a full day of sunshine on the Heaphy Track! It wasn’t on the day when we were along the tops like we had wanted, but it was still appreciated all the same.
Today’s walking took us from the highest point on the track down to the end near the Brown River, about 11 miles away. It was an unremarkable ending to what I’ve decided is a rather unremarkable Great Walk. The first day’s walk along the beach was nice and the few glimpses of low-alpine scenery area along the tops was ok, but 50 miles was too long to walk to only say “wow” to the scenery once or twice.
We are spending the night at Brown Hut at the very end of the track, awaiting our shuttle pickup tomorrow morning. From here, we are headed to Nelson Lakes National Park where we have been before, and we know the scenery there is absolutely amazing.

November 17, 2009

The shuttle picked us up at the end of the track at 10:30 this morning and took us into Collinwood, still 80 miles from Nelson, where we intended to get to today. The fare just to Collinwood (the nearest populated place) was already steep, and though the shuttle was going through to Nelson, the price was high enough that we decided to hitchhike there from Collinwood instead. We still tried to bargain with the driver, saying that if he gave us a deal to Nelson at least he’d be making some money instead of none since he was driving there anyway, but apparently he was not the bargaining type. So we hitchhiked instead, and after an hour on the side of the road we got the ride that took us all the way to our destination… for free.
In Richmond, a suburb of Nelson, we went about grocery shopping and updating the blog. We’ll just be spending one night here in town before heading off into the beautiful Nelson Lakes area for the next five nights.

---