Unblinking Eyes

March 14

Richmond to Red Hills Hut

KM 1944

Distance: 20km?? 

Elevation: ascent 345m, descent 0m

Steps: 30,200

Time: 7:45am - 4:20pm

How to explain today? It was an exercise in patience, and in Hope:

We started hitchhiking at 7:45, right at the sign to the small Nelson suburb of Hope. I hope we gave a few drivers a chuckle as they passed us. And there were quite a few drivers that passed us. Understandably, as it was early morning rush hour, and the majority of the drivers were in work vehicles. After nearly an hour, we were picked up by a woman returning to Dunedin after a family reunion in Nelson this past weekend. She too was driving a work-branded vehicle, but in this case it was one provided for personal - as well as work - use. 

She dropped us off at the official, signed turn-off from State Highway 6 leading to St Arnaud. This is many kilometers past the unofficial, subtly-signed turn-off that obviously all of the locals use. So while we were at the intersection of State Highwy 6 and State Highway 63, there were a) precious few vehicles driving by; and b) none of them had any interest in picking up hitchikers.

So after two hours of waiting around, hoping for a ride and fighting off sandflies, we decided that we needed to get moving, and we are surely capable of walking the 28km in to St Arnaud! Of course, we have very full packs, with 11 days worth of food, so probably approaching 20kg each. So it was a bit tough (understatement) walking along a sealed tarmac on a hot day.

We stuck our thumbs out to every passing car anyway, hoping that someone would take pity on us. Not too long after we sat down to have lunch (peanut butter wrap), we finally flagged someone down to take us the final 15km or so of the trip. A short trip for that driver, but it saved literally hours for us! He dropped us off at the convenience store in St Arnaud, and we immediately espied Nigel, sitting there relaxing after having come in from Lakehead Hut this morning.

We'd arrived there by 2pm, and Vaughan had a coffee and Eliza had an ice cream (yes, this is backwards to the normal order of things, and yes it is typed correctly). This gave us enough energy to contemplate what to do with the rest of our day. The only open backpackers in town was full, and while there is a campground in town, we were both impatient to get going. So we looked at the map, and knowing that there was a bit of a shortcut we could take today, we set off up the road again.

The official Te Araroa path takes hikers along the state highway for about 8km, before heading up a very up-and-down mountain bike track to the Red Hills Hut. We'd heard from south-bound hikers that most people take the shorter, and less steep, Red Hills Track, which is admittedly another four or five kilometers down the state highway. It was worth it to us, though, for the shorter and easier time of getting to the hut (have we mentioned our pack weights?!). Again, as we walked the side of the highway, we stuck our thumbs out, and again were lucky (although very luckily it did not take nearly as long as the previous attempts had!). 

A short 10 minute car ride had us at the trail head by 2:15, and the sign there said it was less than 2 hours to the hut itself. Perfect!

The mountain bikers that maintain and use this section of trail obviously have a good sense of humour, too:

The track went through a bit of beech forest (yes we still like it), past some old farm buildings:

and up enough to get beautiful views of the valley and river that passes by St Arnaud:

The absolute highlight of the walk was seeing a ruru (morepork; New Zealand native owl), just sitting on a branch, looking at us and all of the smaller bird life around it. (Toto, does this scene look familiar to you?)

When we got to the hut, just on two hours after starting the track, a friendly older couple was there, having spent a few days in and around this end of the Richmond Ranges. They are locals, and have spent many years and trips all over these hills, so were able to let us know which of the track time signs are accurate, and which are not.

The huts in this section of the trail tend to be smaller - 6 or 8 bunks in each, compared to on the previous section that had up to 18 or 20 bunks. We are looking forward to the necessarily smaller groups in huts for the night.

Bring on the Richmonds!!