The Heaphy Track
i was prepared for pain and suffering [i had a 27km days just a couple of days before the heaphy track], blisters, sandflies and boring scenery. instead i had lovely weather, clear sky and no sandflies for the first three days.
day i
the only other tourist on the track was a japanese guy. other than the two of us it was pure kiwis. a father who took his three daughters to the track. the poor kids had to walk 25kms.
as night set and it became cold, i realized why they say that the gouland flats hut is a jut with lots of atmosphere. half of the smoke from the fireplace was going into the hut. i woke up around
day ii
after breakfast an “easy” day on 19kms followed. i walked along flats, open downs and shoe trees to the next hut. there were two wobbly wire bridges, they type they make out of garden wire fence. there was some
so, basically, not a lot of peace and quite the second day. i again met the weird habit of kiwis to jump into the coldest water they can find for a “swim” or a “dip”, when they’re perfectly nice and dry.
the hut warden in the hut was an ex social worker and she spent some time with us. i made a few remarks about the lack of washing machine and speculated that they do not wash their clothes too often. the hut warden responded that she, unlike some other people *ahem*, had her shower that day. i chose to remain stinky, but dry and warm.
day iii
you could see the location of my third hut, the heaphy hut, [there are lots of huts and a few of possibilities to hike the heaphy] from the second hut. it looked far away. i did not believe i was acvtually going to walk all the way to the west coast. but i had my hut pass, my blisters were doing pretty well, and a 21km pursued, with a stopover at Lewis Hut to watch crazy kiwis ford a river with their kid when a perfectly good bridge is no more than two minutes away. wet boots and wet feet are a hiking nightmare, and bare feet also mean sandfly bait, and we got to meet lots of sandflies in the hut. the secret of the sandflies is that as long as you’re moving [in theory] they don’t bite [although the amount of bites i have on my legs might indicate otherwise]. they go to bed when it gets dark. and you’re ok if you cover up.
well, i covered up real well when i got to the hut for the night. on the way i walked under some rainforesty cliffs, by river deltas, crossed a couple of big and safer [note the safer. i do not believe they’re safe] swing bridges and reached a hut standing on a patch of green grass. one hundred meters from the hut was a sandy beach and a lagoon which was salty on high tide and fresh on low tide. a really nice place for a hut.
the initial cover up did not work. they can bite you through the poly-something thermals they make here. you have to deet yourself first, then put of your thermals. i hate deet. after the first 6 or 7 bites i just stayed inside. and much fun it was – the hyperactive kids went the other way, but some nice kiwi families were hiking the same hike and the day was spent away chatting.
i could not get to sleep that night. i was starving. as usual, i did not carry enough bread and i was reading LOTR. merry and pippin were escaping from the orcs and eating their lambas. i had a snickers bar. it was the best snickers bar i had in my life, but it was tomorrow’s ration. i knew the last day will be tough.
day iv – or how i discovered modern day lambas
well, hazy with hunger i got some breakfast down. not even a couple of hours into my hike for the day i ate my lunch. i was out of chocolate, trail mix, chocolate bars, tortillas, cheese. i only had my stove, pasta and another 10kms to walk before the shuttle pick up point.
the last days had quite a lot of uphill and downhill. not very steep, but unexpected. and 16kms are a lot of walking after walking 66kms in 3 days. nonetheless, i managed to enjoy the last day. i did feel triumph when i reached the parking lot and the heaphy track sign – 135km of walking in eight days were quite an achievement for me. i then proceeded to start cooking the pasta. the kiwi family offered me a One Square Meal. they are basically two heavy duty granola bars, with no sugar, some protein powder and three of these a day, in theory, supply all of your nutrition. well, OSM only come in apricot flavour. but after three and a half days of being hungry i was ready to eat anything while waiting for my 20-minutes-pasta to cook.
i think that you need to starve for three and a half days [ok, not starve. be peckish] to like OSM. but once it’s in your system you’re theirs forever. OSM are now integral part of my hiking diet [can you really call something which is 25% chocolate a diet?]. you can live on them, they keep you going, help your spirits and they keep you fed. just like lambas [maybe, just maybe, i should not have picked up the Fellowship of the Ring in that book exchange. on the other hand, i’m not going to join the Tolkien community when i come back. some hazy talk has done no one no harm]. and $12 a day for food is cheap. i wonder if i could really just live on them.
a shuttle showed out of the horizon and took us to another expensive resort to reach tourists. i got a towel and shampoo, had a shower and re-wore my stinky tramping gear and felt sorry for myself. i was all alone in the backpackers’ section, another cold and draughty room and i was not very clean. i had to sleep in my stinky sleeping bag. i went to the bar, where it was nice and warm, and the kiwi family invited me over to dinner. the cook put beets in my burger. beets?? what the hell? that’s even weirder than fresh cucumbers. the beets had to go. i entertained them with stories, got a free meal and a good night’s sleep before spending about nine hours on different Southern Link busses the next day.nothing good can happen on a day you spend nine hours on busses, and this one was no exception. you could it was even worse than usual. it was about
well.
she knew she left me behind. she wanted to teach me a lesson. i thought that after a month and a half of being on time for busses she could give me a break. she wasted half an hour for eight people and had to do extra driving. but i got a good story out of it.
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