To the West Coast!

Please be forewarned: this is a loooooong post!

After leaving Blenheim, I made my way down the east coast to see the seal colonies in Kaikoura. The pups were very, very cute, waddling and hopping around. I went on a brief inland walk next to a stream, in which you could see pups playing together in the stream's pools whilst their mums went out fishing - allowing them to play in a safe haven away from the dangers of whales and other predators. Apparently during the breeding season, you can see up to about 70 pups playing there. I was still fortunate enough to see about half a dozen.

Seal pups playing (left) and another seal colony (right)!

From Kaikoura, my plan was to head over to the west coast. So I took to the beautiful mountain road via Lewis Pass, staying at a free campsite half way between the east and west coasts. OH MY GOD. It was cold. When I finally got the bottle to leave my sleeping bag in the morning, I discovered a frost all around my car… Brrrrrrrr! Having not had much sleep that night (despite my multiple layers, sleeping bag and duvet), I decided that maybe, if I’m to continue sleeping in the car, I should invest in another sleeping bag.

Before I could do that, however, I still had to get through the mountains and into civilisation on the other side. The drive was magnificent. It was so so beautiful, and it really picked my energy levels up. I decided that maybe I could be a truck driver – that way I’d be able to drive through these beautiful landscapes and get paid for it. Don’t worry – that was only a fleeting thought… but it really was magical driving through those mountain ranges. I can’t really describe how it was different to driving through other mountain ranges – it just had great energy and made me feel really alive!

When I got to the west coast, I found myself in Westport, a nice little town next to the ocean, with mountain views behind. I wanted to research the Heaphy Track tramp – something I’d randomly discovered whilst reading my Lonely Planet in Kaikoura, so I spent a while wandering around the town, and then went to the library to use the internet. It was another instance where I was grateful to be an independent traveller – my friends had all rushed down the west coast, ignoring this bit of the country. But I had the luxury of exploring it all at my own pace, doing what I wanted to do. No compromise necessary.

So anyway, back to the Heaphy. It’s a 4-5 day tramp (multi-day hike) through the Kahurangi National Park, stretching from the top of the west coast, just north of Karamea, along the west coast and moving inland to finish up near Collingwood, just west of Nelson. So it isn’t a loop track. Hmmm….. how do I get from one end to the other… cheaply? The best option I could figure consisted of leaving my car in Westport, taking a bus over to Nelson, staying in a hostel overnight, taking a shuttle to Collingwood, doing the Heaphy tramp, then getting a shuttle back to Westport. What a palaver! Or alternatively I could do it the other way – drive my car to the top of the west coast, do the Heaphy tramp, then get back to the car via shuttles, hostels and buses. But ugh… that sounded like a lot of effort after a 4 day tramp. Or I could just leave my car at the top of the west coast, walk for 2 days, then turn around and walk the 2 days back. I’d still do a 4 day tramp, but it wouldn’t be the proper Heaphy. That was certainly the cheapest option!

The library rather inconveniently closed before I could find any other options, so I wandered down to an ‘outdoors’ shop, bought a new (very reasonably priced) military style sleeping bag (it has re-enforced feet compartment for leaving your boots on whilst you sleep!) and some waterproof trousers, and asked the shop owner what the general consensus on freedom camping in the area was, as there were no DOC campsites nearby. She directed me to a free campsite on the beach – super! On the way, I stopped off at the gym to see how much they charged for the use of a shower. $3. I’d be back in the morning!

So I got to the campsite and parked up right next to the ocean. I got out my trusty camp-stove and gas, and heated up some soup for dinner.

Parked up for the night in Westport

Whilst I was heating my dinner, a car came along, and I discovered that I’d inadvertently blocked a little track. Oh. But I was about to eat, and as she was able to drive around me, I figured I’d eat first, then I’d move my car. The lady then came over and started talking to me, and I found out she was a local, just there for a walk along the beach. We chatted for a while, and she invited me to go back to stay at her house, as she had a spare bed. YES PLEASE!! So she went off for her walk, I ate my dinner, and when she got back we drove over to her house in convoy. It was a quaint house, right next to the river Buller, with beautiful mountain views in the opposite direction. We sat and chatted for hours, and then I made my way down to bed. My own double bed: Luxury! :)

Sunset from Caili'n's house

Luxury double bed for the night!

The next morning I had a wonderful shower, and got myself ready to leave. I had to find out more about this Heaphy tramp. Caili’n and I chatted a bit more, and she told me about a new restaurant that was opening up across the road, which was advertising for staff. She said that if I worked there, I could live with her. That sounded pretty good to me! I phoned the lady, and she said to drop my CV off for her to collect later, and that they’d be interviewing on Wednesday. The problem was, it was currently Friday midday, Saturday was forecast for heavy rain, and it was a 4 day tramp. This meant that I couldn’t really wait until Sunday to go on the tramp.

Ah well – so it’s forecast as ‘heavy rain’… so what? I can handle that! And it might not even materialise. So I made my way up to Karamea (100km north of Westport) with the view to either start the Heaphy tramp that day or the next. When I got there, it was about 2.30pm. Plenty of time left in the day. So I booked myself into the DOC huts for 3 nights. The third night I’d stay in the same hut as the first, and then just hike back out to my car. Yes, it was the cheaper, cop-out version. But it seemed the best option at the time.

I drove up to the start of the track, and chucked everything out of my car that I thought I might need for the next 4 days and 3-4 nights. I had a huge pile of things on the grass to sort through. And then I noticed them. They were everywhere. SWARMING. Thousands of them all over my stuff – all over me – all in my car… SANDFLIES!!!!!! Aaaaargggghhhhhh!!! It was absolutely insane. I’d never seen so many sandflies. And I had to pack my bag with these critters surrounding me?? Ugh! I managed it (just about), but it did mean that I made some rather rash decisions packing stuff that I should have left behind. I had no 'light' food to take, so I just made do with what I already had - ready-made soup, musili, fruit juice, ryvita... a packet of gingernuts... some tea bags... and a chocolate bar. Not the most thought-out menu ever, but it would do. I just wanted to get the packing over with as soon as possible - the sandflies' distraction made it take longer to pack than I'd expected, and I ended up finally being ready to go at 4pm.

Oh sh*t. It was 4pm!!! With a 5 hour walk (16.2km) to the first hut, the sun would be set by 7.45pm. It would be 9pm before I'd get to the hut. Crap. My head torch wasn’t powerful enough to lead me along a black path… so I had 2 options: the first was that I could stay the night in my car and head off in the morning… but my car was now swarming with sandflies. There’s no way I could sleep in there tonight. So I had to go with option 2: walk as fast as I could, and try my best to get there before night-fall.

So off I went at 4.06pm, at speed. By DOC calculations (which are generally quite accurate), I’d be there over an hour after night-fall. But if I could make up 15 minutes on every hour they stated, I could do it in 4 hours and get there at 8pm. Sounded feasible! So off I sped, up hills, down hills, over swing bridges, along beaches, barely stopping to take photos.

  

SWINGBRIDGES!!! YAY!!! :)

It was beautiful scenery, but I’d be coming back this way, so could appreciate the beauty a bit more then. For now, it was just a case of getting there! The first problem I ran into was that this track was very different to the Abel Tasman. It didn’t have lots of ‘time markers’ on it, as I’d been anticipating. This posed the problem that I had ABSOLUTELY NO idea of the kind of progress I was making. Nooooo! Ah well – ‘just keep swimming’ and all that! Then, at the half-way point, there was a shelter with the one and only time marker on the track: 2.5 hours to the hut, 2.5 hours to the carpark. I’d done it in 2 hours… I was on track to meet my target! I kept pushing on, and all of a sudden, just as it started raining, I found myself next to a post stating ‘1km to hut’. REALLY?? Awesome! So I ran the last 1km (with a backpack that must have weighed at least 17kg) as I didn’t want to have to get my waterproofs out, and got to the Heaphy Hut at 7.30pm. Less than 3.5 hours after I’d started. YAY! I’d done it!!! I was absolutely exhausted, but thrilled that I wasn’t going to be out there in the dark and the rain.

Heaphy Hut

 View from the hut

The hut was amazing – sink inside with drinking water, gas cookers, and even flush toilets outside – this was luxury!! My hut companions that night were a group of about 8 school kids and their teachers. The kids were aged 12-13, and were very noisy. As I’d got there so early, I even had time to cook and eat before it got dark. I sat and ate my dinner at one of the large wooden tables and chatted to the teachers, before going to bed and sleeping soundly on the plastic mattresses provided in the huts.

I awoke to the sound of kids screeching. Ugh. I got up, had some breakfast and went on my merry way. It was nice not to be in such a hurry, so I really did just take my time. I was lucky that I had nice weather, so was happy and at peace, just moseying through the bush.

Koru

  

The first few hours was pretty much flat, but then the uphill began. It was great walking uphill for the first 2 hours - but the 3rd and 4th hours were, I must say, just plain tedious. Am I STILL walking up this bloomin’ hill?? Gah. And it rained a fair bit during the day too. I felt good when I got to the hut at the top though – yay – the James Mackay hut! :)

View of sunset from the James Mackay hut, showing the distance that I'd walked that day...

I had six companions in my hut that night – all friends in their forties. They were all university friends who meet up for a tramp once a year – seemed like a great idea! And I’ve never known a tramper to eat such gourmet meals! Honestly – they were eating and drinking better than I would at home! Fresh veggies, risotto, stewed prunes and custard for dessert. They even brought a whisk with them to make the custard! Scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast… I was in awe, sat there eating my soup and ryvita cracker…

Custard and prunes for dessert

That night we heard a kiwi bird! No chance of seeing it, but we heard it none-the less! My hut companions told me that they were getting picked up by plane at the other end (they were going the opposite direction to me), and so there would definitely be a light aircraft leaving from where I was finishing, headed towards my car on the Tuesday morning; the morning after I finished my tramp. Well that sounded super! The quoted cost sounded about the same as the shuttles that I'd been looking into, but without the hassle of having to travel overland for 2 days! AND I’d get a scenic flight out of it! I took down the number for ‘Come Fly with Jim’, and figured I’d call him when I got to Brown Hut (I didn’t have any phone signal on the tramp, but there was apparently a phone at the last hut which allowed free local calls…). So that was it... I was doing the whole tramp!

The next day, it was overcast, but I was in high spirits. We all left at the same time – late, at about 11am. We said our goodbyes, and went our separate ways - me heading in the opposite direction to the one that I'd anticipated leaving in when I'd arrived the previous evening.

I managed all of half an hour before the rain started tumbling down. Waterproofs donned, I carried on. After a few hours of walking in the rain, I reached a vast tussock-covered landscape. I stopped in a hut for lunch, debating whether I should wait out the rain, or just keep walking on. I stayed in the Saxon hut for about an hour and a half, but the rain was relentless. I could hear Rachel, the DOC warden for the campsite I’d stayed in the previous night saying ‘the creeks can get really flooded in heavy rainfall. If they go above your waist, don’t try and cross them’. Ummm…. If they go above my ankles I don’t really fancy crossing them – I’ve got a full other day to walk in these boots, and I don’t want them getting wet!!! So, with the rain not stopping, I headed back out. Onwards and upwards! Well… actually – it was pretty flat for the next hour or so. Which wasn’t great, as the water was just collecting on the paths and not draining away. So I had to not only watch my feet all of the time because of the rugged path, I also had to keep an eye out for huge puddles that would get my feet soaking. I do love my hiking boots – not only do they only give me minimal blisters, but they also keep my feet dry - for the most part at least!

In the Saxon Hut, not really sure that I wanted to leave it!

When will the rain stop??

The creeks really were really starting to rise. Even before I'd got to the last hut, the creeks had been quite difficult to cross, and they were getting worse (for one, I’d had to barge my way downstream, find a way to cross, clamber up a bank, jump over a river and climb down a vertical steep bank, all with my huge backpack on). I didn’t fancy crossing them again, so I HAD to make it to the end hut, or I’d just end up sleeping on the path! Positive thinking… it was all part of the adventure after all! :)

  

I passed by a monument, where people had hung up their old shoes on a post. It was raining too hard for me to really get my camera out, but I figured a few photos would be ok…

After that, when I was at the top of the ridge, the wind was so strong that it was catching my backpack and pretty much pushing me over with every step! Eeeeek! But I could see the cover of trees ahead, so pushed on. And entered the tranquil, serene, mossy undergrowth – it was amazing and magical. I half expected to see a fairy or two! And it didn’t matter that it was wet, because this type of place was meant to be wet. It was uplifting.

My walking stick, Wilbert

Quintinia Creek

Fawn Creek

Then I was going uphill, and there were LOTS of creeks. Or should I say waterfalls by this point? Using my trusty stick, Wilbert for support, I somehow managed to make it across all of them ok, but there were times when I thought I was going to fall in and get swept away with the roaring water! By this point, I’d got so annoyed with the rain, that I just started counting my footsteps – trying to work out how many km I was covering, and so how much longer I had left on this damn path before I got to the hut. Of course, as I’d said before, there were no ‘time/distance markers’. It was starting to get dark too – when I was in the bush, I had seriously considered stopping to get the head torch out, as the bush was so thick that what daylight there was outside was not penetrating it. But the thought of having to stop and put my pack down in the wet mud was enough to deter me from that thought. So I pushed on.

Not too sure how I was going to cross this one... but elated when I did!

  

And just over 8 hours after I’d started walking, I saw it. Like a mirage in the distance. A little hut with smoke coming out of its chimney. Perry Saddle Hut. My heart lifted. I picked up the pace and carried on uphill to the hut. When I got there, I was drenched. I was cold. I was hungry, and I was pretty miserable. The simplicity of having a warm hut to go into, with a candle burning in the window made such a difference. The hut warden had been told that I’d changed my plans and was now staying there that night, and so had put the fire on for me – I was so grateful!! Then he came down from his little house (where he lives) to check that I’d made it up ok, as he said that he’d started to get a bit worried about where I was as it was getting late and was awful outside. Once he’d gone, I stripped off, hung all of my clothes (and some of the clothes from inside my backpack that, despite being in a plastic bag and with a rain cover over the whole backpack too, had STILL managed to get soaked), changed into some dry clothes that I managed to find, and r.e.l.a.x.e.d. I ate dinner and just went to bed.

 
The next morning, I awoke to blue sky. So THAT’S what it looked like outside the hut?! It was a very beautiful setting. It started to spit with rain, and a beautiful rainbow appeared.

I had breakfast, got dressed, cleaned the hut and started off on my final day tramping through the Heaphy Track. It was all downhill, so would be an easy, hopefully sunny day. And it was. It was glorious weather. And it was ALL downhill. 5 hours of it! I started wishing for a bit of uphill reprieve, as my feet were really starting to ache! But I had all the time in the world. As I passed by a shelter, my phone beeped. WHAT? I have signal HERE? 800m above sea level? I’d just received a message that had been sent 3 days previously. So I figured, if I have signal, I can phone Jim the pilot, and ask him about the flight the next day! Success – I was booked on. Then I phoned my dad, and my mum, and after being sat there in the sunshine (with some very cheeky birds) for about an hour and a half, I carried on. Down down down! Somehow I still had battery in my camera, so was able to keep taking photos all day. I saw about 10 people walking up the other way. They had 5 hours of solid UPHILL to climb, so were evidently very tired in the sunshine. And just starting out on the tramp – they had so much beauty to come! And I was sure that they’d have fun in the hut altogether that night too!

Cheeky Weka & Fantail!

  

  

Wilbert...

  

... and Mirai finally came out!

  

I decided whilst I was walking that I really didn't mind doing the tramp on my own. Yes - for safety reasons, it did get a bit sketchy doing it on my own, but companionship-wise, I'm quite happy having my 'alone time'. Four days without speaking to anyone would have been excessive, granted. But I didn't miss not having anyone to talk to whilst I was walking. I think it made me focus on and appreciate my surroundings more, being on my own. I am, however, very much looking forward to going tramping / hiking with Chris. I think that it will be nice to share the experiences with someone special - as long as he doesn't feel the need to fill in all the gaps of silence all the time, which I know he won't ;)

My flight was leaving the next morning, so I stayed in the hut at the end of the tramp, Brown Hut. Again, I was on my own there, but it was ok – I just read my book and went to bed early. I woke up the next day to yet more glorious weather (yay – I’d be able to see on the flight!), and went down to the airstrip, about half an hour down the road. Jim was there waiting for me, I hopped in Jim’s Cessna and we took off, over the park where I’d just spent the past 4 days. It was incredible to truly see the vastness of it from the air. We could even see some of the huts from the air! What had taken me 4 days and 4 nights to cross was covered in a 20 minute plane journey. What a great way to return back to the west coast!

  

I waited for a few hours for a shuttle to take me the last 16km to my car (I could’ve walked it, I guess, but I was happy to just sit outside a café in the sunshine – I’d alrady done enough walking after all! I think it amounted to 74.8km in total? With about 22 hours of solid walking. So yeah – I deserved that shuttle!

When I got back to my car, I was 1) thankful that it was still there, with all of the glass still in tact and 2) absolutely AMAZED that there weren’t thousands of dead sandflies all over the inside of the car. I’d honestly been expecting to come back and find a blanket of black specks all over and throughout my belongings. But there wasn’t a trace! I’m still mystified by that one…

Jerry started up straight away, and I drove on to the Oparara basin, where there are HUGE limestone arches (the biggest in Australasia) - essentially they were like vast caves above ground, but with openings at each end. I also went to some underground caves, which were too dark and cold for me – and it was creepy being down there on my own, so I quickly exited and went back to the warmth of the outside air!

Looking out from beneath the Oparara Arch

 And beneath the Moria Gate Arch

Crazy Paving Cave & Box Canyon Cave

Then I drove back to Caili’n’s house, had a wonderful shower, had dinner, watched a movie and went to bed. Joy. I’d decided on the tramp that I wasn’t quite ready to settle down and start a job just yet – I was loving being on the road too much, so didn’t follow up on the bartending position. Instead, I got ready to hit the road again :) The next day, when I was about to leave, Caili’n gave me a card thanking me for "spreading joy with [my] lovely smile and beautiful spirit", and gave me a lovely necklace that she’d made out of green glass. I was extremely touched!

Caili'n and me in Westport

I headed off to Cape Foulwind (which doesn't actually smell bad), and then went over to Tauranga Bay where I saw some more seals and walked along the beach. Amazing.

At Cape Foulwind

  

   

Tauranga Bay

I then headed down to Charleston, and drove down a road which led to the ocean, with toilets at the end. I parked up there for the night, next to a beautiful bay. It was seriously beautiful. I started chatting to a lovely couple who were parked up next to me, Val and Mike from Blenheim. Mike had just had his 70th birthday, and I think Val was a bit younger. They were really, really lovely. They had a campervan, and showed me inside it. It was lovely – everything you could need, including a shower and toilet. ‘One day…’, I thought! :)

I made some dinner, and they invited me into their campervan for desert – apple crumble and cream. Yum! I accepted. We spent a lovely evening chatting away, and about 4 hours later, realised the time and headed off to bed. I slept like a baby that night. I awoke to another glorious day. Went in for a cup of tea with Val and Mike, and finally hit the road at about 1pm. How did the time pass so quickly?!

Val & Mike

Then I drove along the west coast, and it was JUST BEAUTIFUL. The broken coastal rocks and wild ocean, blue sky and sunshine was just amazing. Happiness :)

I just drove until I got to Punakaiki, where I stopped to check out the pancake rocks. I’d already seen some in Raglan, so knew what to expect, but it was nice to see none-the-less. I also treated myself to some earrings (‘I need dark ones now, so that they show up in my blonde hair’ were my justifying thoughts), a necklace and a new jumper for winter. Ooops!

  

I carried on down to Greymouth, did my laundry, and tried to find somewhere to eat, as it was raining and I didn’t have shelter to cook under. Literally the ONLY places I could find were KFC and McDonalds. WHAT?? I hadn’t had a McDonalds in years, so I thought I’d bit the bullet and have one of the fish burgers and a hot apple pie. They were actually better than I thought they would be, but I’m not going to hurry back there. It was amazing though – a group of teenagers came in wearing t-shirts saying ‘FAT UNION’ – yes, they were all overweight. I wondered if they had a weekly meet-up at McDonalds, in a ‘proud to be fat’ kind of way. It made me chuckle. Then I headed back to the campground I had parked at, found out they wanted $20 for the night for me to sleep in my car in a car park, so moved swiftly on to a hostel which charged considerably less, and allowed me the use of its facilities. I took FULL advantage of the free internet and showers. I then planned to head further down the west coast. But as I'd come to realise, there's not really any point in 'planning' when you're travelling solo, as plans can (and do) frequently change in the blink of an eye...