So, now that I'm here, where do I start? First, I'd like to mention that I have officially walked over 100 miles in "one" go. The two tramps combined was 168km. The only stop was for a rest day and packing up of food. Not too shabby if I do say so myself! So now to start. . .Ah yes, of course. The Heaphy track. Like I said earlier, the Heaphy is a NZ great walk. NZ has 10 walks that have made great walk status. These walks need to be booked in advance, you have to pay for your camping, and generally they are more crowded. But the trails are very neatly manicured, and they are easy walking with great views.
So, the day is Monday, and I drive the two hours to meet up with Martin. I picked martin up at this fabulous little backpacker called the Innlet. Well immediately the adventure began. As I was going through the food that I had purchased for the tramp, I noticed I forgot to pack the Tea! Heaven Forbid! No Tea? (Uh oh, I'm becoming kiwi or something. . .always needing tea) But I brought the sugar and the instant milk. Everything but the tea! I was immediately thrown into a state of panic! Running around waving my arms above my head and screaming "what do I do?" Luckily Daria was there. Daria is the owner of the backpacker, and she came to my rescue. She gave me about 20 tea bags, just enough for the long trip ahead! Whew! Close call!
Martin and I then drove to the trail head. It was about another half hour from the backpacker, complete with mud bogging and three fords! Apparently when it rains, these fords become unpassable, so at this point I was praying for the next days that we wouldn't get rain on the last days of our tramp. It'd suck not to be able to get good ole Larry out of there! So, on the way in though, Larry did phenomenol! No problems whatsoever with the fords or the mud! Good job larry!
By this time it is one 'o clock in the afternoon. Martin and I know that we have a 5 hour day in front of us. So we begin the hike with the hope of making it to the campsite by 6. It gets dark about 6:30 now. So we our heads down and started tramping! The first day was pretty hard. All uphill, and the scenery wasn't good at all! But we were rewarded with a fantastic sunset once we got to the campsite! That night I had my cup of tea, and some pasta, and then slept like a baby! Now, get ready for the routine. . .For the next days the routine went a lot like this. Wake up early (early being relative of course. We were waking up around 7 every day) We'd then pack up camp, walk for anywhere from 2 hours to 6 hours, find camp, then set up again! We did that for 11 days straight, and it was nothing else but fantastic! So, now that I have that over with, I can just talk about what we saw and did!
So, the Heaphy has every right to be a great walk. Normally it is done in 5 days, but that was with a 3 hour day and a two hour day back to back. So Martin and I combined those two days and made it a four day trip. Day one - all uphill, bad views and stuck in the forest the whole time. Day two - A fabulous walk through the most beautiful section of Forest I have ever seen! Given though, the forest section was only about 100 meters long. And I don't think the picture on the right does it justice, sadly. But as soon as we walked out of the Forest, we walked into the Gouland downs. Here is where we got our first real views!By the way, the next days were all downhill, so that made the hiking easier. The next day, we did a 27 km hike in 5 hours. We saw a lot of beautiful forest and finally made it to the coast, where I met my favorite bird! The Weka! Favorite should be read with a sarcastic tone too. So, the Weka is a flightless bird only found here in New Zealand. Sure, it makes for a cool sight, but these things are pesty to campers. During the night I caught one of these buggers under my tent flap trying to open my plastic bag carrying my wallet and book and other things of that sort. So, at one in the morning, here I am half way out of the tent waving my arms like a crazed maniac trying to get this Weka to leave me alone. The Weka would just jump away about 10 feet, then come up close again till I waved like a dang monkey! I think the Weka was playing with me. It did this about 10 times before it finally went to our neighbors tent and started pestering them! (I wasn't up to getting all the way out of the tent to warn the others. . .oops! :) )
And finally we woke up for the last day of hiking which was on beautiful coast. 4 nice easy hours. And since they were nice and easy, I had to stop to climb this pretty rock carrying a huge pack! The Hike just wasn't enough. You should of seen my on the rock though. I walked up to it like I was all that! Super confident. Then I got on the rock and immediately a wave came crashing into it making me scramble up even faster. I just didn't get wet, but realized I was now "stranded" on the rock. I'd have to downclimb, at just the right time and then book it out of the way of the next incoming wave. It must've been a riot to watch. But, I made it with out getting wet! And sure enough, there was Martin, shaking his head going "crazy americans!"
Now Martin and I get out of the Heaphy track, and we hitchhike to this great little backpacker called Rongo. Rongo had it's own community radio station in the garage, it had rainbow painted walls, and it had fish hanging from the ceiling! Crazy place! Total hippy feeling to it though, and so much fun! I of course had to buy a huge chicken bacon and avacado sandwich and the celebatory beer for completing the first of the two tramps on the itinerary. Unfortunately, Martin doesn't drink beer, so I had to cheers him with his glass of apple juice. I don't know. . .it's just not the same! The next day was a rest day dedicated to planning our food for the next tramp too. So we spent a total of two nights at Rongo.
So then we were off to do the Leslie-Karamea track. And we immediately could tell that we were no longer on a great walk. (I think Mike talked about this exact same phenomenon in one of his posts.) The trail is no longer manicured. It is just through forest with orange markers stuck to trees! So if you lose the orange markers, well your S.O.L. Start relying on your map! But within the first hour of hiking, the little bit of trail that was there had slidden into the river. So we had to do a detour around a cliff. And the detour was climbing up what you see on the right. I should also add that I heard that the Karamea river supposedly has some of the best fly-fishing in New Zealand. So I also have been carrying the rod that mike left with Kris and Bruce. Well, on this detour, the rod was nothing but trouble! Getting caught in the vines on every step! Argh! I was wishing I was back on a great walk! But that wish didn't last very long at all. After the first day on the Leslie-Karamea it begun to get super beautiful!
So more and more hiking. We hiked over a saddle the next day at about 1000 meters where we got our best view. We then hiked and tried to make it to the Trevor Carter Hut that night. Well, the trail markers were not very good in the vicinity of the Hut. (Oh, before I get ahead of myself, the NZ department of Conservation has over 900 backcountry huts in place, complete with mattresses, and usually some type of fire place. So a tent isn't entirely necesarry here.) So as we're looking for the hut, it begins to get dark. We pull out our map, and realize we think we've gone too far. (of course we haven't) so we start back tracking. We then find these markers that go right across the river. So we have to do our first river ford. Even though there is supposed to be a bridge nearby. But we haven't seen anything! So we walk across the river, and luckily find a sign that points to the Hut. So we walk in that direction. We then finally find the bridge that we should've crossed, and by this time it is completly dark. The sign says the hut is only 10 minutes away. So after 15 minutes of walking in the dark, we think we're lost again! Then lo and behold, another sign saying the hut is 2 minutes away. 10 minutes later, we FINALLY make it to the hut. Exhausted. So, after my celebratory cup of tea, we went to bed!
The next day (or the day after, time is merging for me now. . .) It started raining. Not hard. But it's the first rain we'd seen for the entire hike. So we waited out the rain, and then during our short day, I saw this, and had to take a picture of it. I think it is to date the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in the forest. Now, for me, I just had to stop and stare at the scene before me, in awe. The sun was at just the perfect spot, the trees were in just the perfect spot, the mist was in the air, and there was just something magical about it. It was weird, just standing there with a heavy pack on staring at the forest for a good 10 minutes. It was pure bliss! (I got the best picture I could, then Kris helped me photoshop it a little to make it better, but the picture STILL doesn't do the real thing justice!)
And then from there, it rained, and rained. We saw the sun only one more day out of the next 4. Still not bad though. I finally made it to the point where all the books were saying the good fishing is. So I pulled the rod out and wet a line. Well, I've also heard that fish here in NZ spook quite easily. Well, I had a bright red raincoat on, and was pretty tired from hiking, so I can't say I put my FULL effort into fishing, but nontheless, I was skunked. But I'm going to blame it on my raincoat scaring all the fish away! So, I carried this fly rod around with me for 11 days just to get skunked! Oh well, it was fun casting again I guess. :)The remainder of the hike went more or less without a hitch. I found a kauri tree with a big hole in it, and what do we do when we find cool things with holes in them? We play of course! So go press play on the video below to see me playing in the Kauri tree! We then got out of the hike a day later hiking through beautiful forest and higland plataues for the rest of the journey, and went to dinner. I had to buy a fish since I missed out on all of them in the Karamea river, and it was divine!
Whew! So, I'm only just now finishing with the hikes. This IS a long post! Sorry! :)
After hiking, Martin and I hitched our way back to the Innlet to pick up larry. Luckily, the day that we were hitching became sunny again, so all those fords had let up. Larry started right up again too! He was so happy to see me after those long days in the forest all alone! When I got larry back to the backpacker, I checked my phone messeges and got quite a surprise! The police had actually noticed that Larry had been at the end of the Heaphy for about twice the amount of time than people normally leave their cars there. So they had called me making sure not to send out Search and Rescue. I suppose If I had been one or two days later, Search and Rescue would've been after us! So, I called them back to tell them I was O.K. and sure enough, they didn't have any record of calling me! Sweet! I don't know if I should trust the police or not now!
Whew! I'm not going to lie, I'm getting kind of tired of blogging at the moment, but I do have a few other quick stories to tell. So I will be publishing those in another blog either later tonight, or tomorrow. So keep in touch still. Also, since I am putting so many blogs up in such a short amount of time, be sure to scroll down to make sure you haven't missed one! For the time being, peace out!
Also, in the mean time, while you are waiting for my next post, you should click here
It should be a map of my tramp that you can explore on your own! Have fun!
