Over the pass and through the woods

March 3

Hurunui #3 Hut to Hope-Kiwi Lodge

KM 2105.5

Distance: 28km 

Elevation: ascent 516m, descent 436m

Steps: 38,600

Time: 7:50am - 3:45pm

Knowing we were a day "behind", we decided to try for something we hadn't done yet on this trail - skip a hut, skip a "day", and make up a day on the trail. Bonus, this would also have us catch up with Linsey and Nigel - our tramily.

So we woke up a little bit early, helped by the fact that the DoC workers obviously had to get their breakfasts before heading back up the trail to start their working day. This had the added bonus of getting to see the early dawn in the valley.

Basically, the first hour of the day was changing light through the mist, and kept taking our breath away - a little bit literally, as it was pretty cold this morning!

Part of the way we would make up time today, would be by 'cheating' on the trail a little bit. The official trail between Hurunui #3 Hut and Hurunui Hut (yes, it's confusing to all of us) takes you along the edges of beech forest, and with this lots of little up-and-downs, which absolutely steals any and all energy you might have. We had heard that we could parallel the trail on the other side of the river, in grassland which should be easy walking.

So this was our view for much of that part of the day - and it did take some time off the trip! The trail notes say it is four to five hours between the two huts. We even skipped past the hut about a half hour before we rejoined the trail, and it only took us a little over 2 hours to do that 10km. That is Lake Sumner in the distance.

We then entered beech forest, which was quite lovely, although some of the beech was absolutely covered by this black fungus. The forest took us over Kiwi Saddle, the highest point of today. Luckily it was not super steep, so we were able to enjoy the entire climb, and descent on the other side.

In this forest, we saw so many toutouwai (south island robin), who were so 'friendly' and very bold. I say 'friendly' because they're really just looking for food, and are either expecting human feet to kick over rocks etc to expose worms and grubs; or are interested in checking out your shoelaces that maybe look like the biggest worms they've ever seen!!

We also went off track a little bit to avoid a huge mud puddle, and then found ourselves way off track - we couldn't see any markers! Luckily, we have GPS-enabled apps on our phones that helped us back to the track, but this involved about 20 minutes of bush bashing and climbing straight up the hill (luckily not too steep). At one point, to help her up a steep bit, Eliza grabbed on to a ~20cm diameter beech tree trunk. She realised almost immediately that it was not stable, and then had to hold it up from falling while yelling at Vaughan to get out of the way. As soon as he was clear she let it go and it crashed to the ground, just where Vaughan had been standing! Perhaps our closest call yet, and definitely as close as we want to get to falling trees.

The last couple of kilometers of the day were across grassy fields again, this time with the sound of small aircraft flying up and down the valley every half hour or so. This also afforded us a view of the hut from easily two kilometers away (maybe visible in this photo, in the distance on the left just at the treeline).

But when we did arrive at the hut, it was to smiles all around as we were reunited with our tramily. When we say hut, it's actually a Lodge. The size of a house, two large bedrooms with 7 and 8 bunks respectively, large common area and kitchen. A further 5 minutes along the trail is a small waterfall, high enough to get your head under. This was the closest thing to a shower we've had for a while.

Soon after we arrived, a group of seven women who we passed up near the top of Kiwi Pass, arrived as well. So it's a reasonably full hut but still room for more if they come.  A long, tiring, and satisfying day!

Oh and also, we passed the Smurf Villlage on the way in today