Onwards to the Rakaia

February 21

Comyn's Hut to Glenrock Station to Methven

KM 2275, and diversion

Distance: 16km 

Elevation: 453m ascent, 846m descent

Steps: 27,000

Time: 8:00am - 12:30pm

The morning dawned clear but cool as the Comyns Hut bunks spilled their sleepy occupants into the confined space at around 7pm. Several toilet visits had already been made and the clangy doorhandle and rustling sleeping bags meant that no one (save maybe the early-20-something young man) was still asleep. The two of us and Linsey had a 1pm appointment with leg 1 of our transport around the Rakaia River, and an estimated 5 hours to get to the pick up destination. Coffee and porridge was cooked and scoffed, gear jammed into packs, and feet squished into still-cold and -wet shoes/boots before stepping into the crepuscular world outside the hut.

Dry boots/shoes wouldn't have remained that way for long as we were soon into knee-high dewy grass and tussock, with a stream crossing filling our footwear for good measure. What beckoned us on was seeing where sunshine met mountain shadow on the ground knowing that we'd be warming up soon. It was around here that Eliza made the following observation:

In June, I'm going to miss this. Getting out of a sleeping bag into a cold hut; packing all of our worldly possessions as we eat a hurried breakfast; jamming feet into cold, wet socks and boots; hauling 15 or so kg onto our backs; and setting out through wet vegetation and streams.

And not a word of sarcasm, from either one, as Vaughan agreed.

Our journey to sun drenched soil was interrupted by a 60+year young SOBO walker who was re-starting after re-injuring her knees two weeks earlier. Knees which had been operated on only late last year. Her method is to walk as far as she can in a day then set up a small tent if she can't make it to a hut. She planned to do in 10 days what we had just done in 4 days.  The tenacity of some people puts our efforts into perspective.

We'd like to share with you some insight into the South Island part of the TA from a note left in the hut book. There is a hut book in every hut in NZ, and is the equivalent of a visitors book. You leave certain details as a record of your visit. The most important use of these hut books is by search and rescue personnel to narrow a search area when looking for missing persons.

The note presented a hypothetical scenario; You can choose only one of these three things for your day:

1. Dry feet.

2. A well marked trail.

3. No road walking.

My navigation skills are good enough that a poorly marked trail doesn't phase me. But I can't decide between the other two. After three consecutive days of putting on wet socks and shoes, I might choose a road walk, but I know that it can be hell on my feet.

Morning tea was taken at the appropriately named A-Frame Hut (as creative a name as South Island) after 2 hours walking. Banana chips, crackers and scroggin (trail mix) were on the menu.

After 400m of ascent we reached the saddle and finally saw the gravelly Rakaia River, the end point of this section, and the last of the two "uncrossable" South Island rivers which have punctuated our Canterbury leg of the trail. After this we will only need to take vehicle transport if we need to travel to a town to resupply. The river is huge by NZ measures, apparently it would take 4-5 hours just to walk across the river bed (a few people do). This river is an example of a braided river which is a river form Eliza has been particularly fond of since taking a river geomorphology course at uni.

Our driver was Darren who is also the owner/host of the Methven Camping Ground where we are staying. It's a delightful place with lots of accomodation options, mature trees and decent facilities. As with most other people in the hospitality sector we've talked to, business has been particularly slow over summer because there are no international tourists, but he is hopeful of a busy winter with skiers. He also noted that the online forums are full of overseas people planning their TA journeys for October 2022; so he is predicting a very busy TA for next season. This news made us extremely glad we were able to do this hike this year; as we are not enamoured of the stories from pre-Covid years of huts full to overflowing; of small-town grocery store shelves cleaned out; and hikers rushing to both accommodation and stores to 'get ahead' of the other hikers for the day.

We've changed our plans again, we'll stay in Methven a second night because we were able to make appointments for our booster shots for tomorrow. We'll resupply for about 10 days before hitting the trail on Wednesday morning. This is instead of hitchhiking to Christchurch for several days where we had intended to get our booster shots and resupply. This way we might make up for a couple of lost days earlier in the walk.

I'll leave you with a picture of our cute little cabin (complete with potted rose bush) for the next 2 nights.