From Grads to Nomads

Day 1....

We left Nelson at around 9:30am, intending to be hiking by about 11am. Well, due to my exceptional navigational skills....we ended up driving about 80 km the wrong direction over a hilly mountainous pass, and it was not until we were through that I realized we had missed the turn. So.....about 1:30, after renting the neccessary bits of equipment, we hit the trail. Our first day comprised of 12 km, which rolled us into camp about 5:30, and we took the last bunks available in the hut, and heated up our precooked pasta. We spent the evening chatting with a traveller from Washington, D.C., and Jason opted to sleep in the tent with Chris for the first night. Our sleep was less than restfull, as I had the great snoring Granny next to me the whole night, and on my other side a bitter, muttering woman expressing her discontent with the snoring coming from the old woman all night. On the top bunk, Rob, who had opted to sleep the opposite direction of everyone else, got kicked in the head 3 times by the big guy next to him, before the guy decided to snuggle Rob's legs in his sleep, wrapping his arm around him.....needless to say, Rob was less than impressed! The next morning we got going around 9:30am, taking the low tide route across a bay.

Day 2.....
We crossed the bay, which involved getting a wee bit wet and walking barefoot across soft sand with many shells imbedded within, which are a wee bit painful on the feet! However, it did save us an hour of walking, so it made it worthwhile. We then slugged up and over hills, treated to many gorgeous views of white sand beaches with turquoise waters. We rolled into hut number two, Bark Bay, at around 1:30, and after a lunch of pitas and cream cheese, we headed out to the beach and laid in the sand, dipping into the water for a cool down. Later on, a pleasant afternoon nap, and then dinner preparations. It was then we discovered that tonight's sleep distractor would be the young baby that one couple had brought with them, who thankfully only cried a few times during the night. Jason decided to try out the hut bed, and a German woman who slept next to him asked if he snored, to make sure he didn't because she hates snoring. Ironically she ended up snoring loudly all night. As we went to bed around 9:30 each night, we were up early in the morning. We were lying in bed in the am, getting ready to get up when we heard a loud thump and then screams/crying. Turns out a girl in the next room had fallen 8 feet off the bunk bed onto her back. She ended up getting airlifted out by helicopter, and most hikers stuck around for an extra hour to watch all the commotion. Once the helicopter had taken off, we got off hiking.

Day 3.....

The hiking was fairly uneventful, just seeing many more great views. A lot of the hike is through dense, tropical foliage, which is very different from hiking at home. The trail was busy, as it is filled with day hikers taking water taxis in and out, and we passed a lot of people. At one point, we caught up to a middle aged German woman who got angry at being passed. SHe pulled up her pace to avoid being passed, and then tripped and stuck her hiking pole out to the side to prevent us passing her. WHen her friend yelled up to her from behind us to let us pass her, she began to mutter angrily to herself before finally stepping aside! That bit of drama out of the way, we came to Awaroa lodge in the early afternoon, a luxury lodge in the middle of the hike where we stopped for lunch before heading to our more rustic hut! We enjoyed some chicken salads and cold beers, checked our email, and enjoyed a touch of civilization before walking across a hot dry sandy tidal area to our hut. I should mention though that all the huts on the hike had flush toilets, running filtered water, and sinks, some that included dish soap!! It was not quite roughing it, although we were cooking over a camping stove. There was a cold shower at this hut, which I took advantage of to wash my hair, although it was like pouring ice water over my head!! In the evening, we got into a round of poker with seashells for chips, and finally headed to bed, as playing by candlelight got a bit dim. It was a great sleep for us, as Rob and I hopped into a room with only 2 others, while the other hikers cramed into the larger bunkrooms.

Day 4......

Today was an early day.....we awoke at 5am, due to neccessity. Once leaving the but, we had to cross a huge tidal area which was only passable at low tide, and leaving at 5:30am was the latest possible time to do so, otherwise we would have had to wait until late afternoon. We set off in the dark, and crossed tidal streams which reached my mid thigh, and headed off for what turned into our longest day. It was overcast all day, and there were a lot of hills to climb over. It basically went....climb a hill....go down, cross a beach, climb a hill, go down, cross a beach, and so on! Let me mention, walking in loose sand with a 20lb backpack on is hard work on the legs!! After hiking for about 5 hours, we took a rest in a bay called Mutton Cove, where we prepared for an extra hour to our day so that we could head to Seperation Point to see seals. We walked some more beaches, and were about to start our climb into the hills when we saw a seal laying alone under the beach brush. We took some pictures of it, and then Chris got a little too close, for the seal hopped up and got quite angry!! It was quite a sight to see!! We then saw a dead penguin in the bushes which was very sad, and then we made our way to Seperation Point. It was a rocky scramble down, and we saw a few seals and a lot of birds. From here, it was a long walk to the last hut, which was a restored 1898 farmhouse. It felt like staying the night in Heritage Park!
The night was the most fun, as there were only 9 of us staying there, and 10 minutes after we arrived the rain came in buckets and poured the rest of the day/night. We sat around chatting to the other hikers all evening, and when the Dept. of Conservation guide came over to check our permits, he told us all about Maori legends of the area. We also apparantly missed seeing about 300 dolphins in the bay by 2 days. It was a great night, and we sat around the old stove to get heat from the fire. The hut was apparantly haunted by an old sailor, but we did not catch any sightings!!

Day 5.....
The rain thankfully stopped and turned into a drizzle, so we made our way back 8km to our spot for the water taxi pick up. We basically pushed on, going up and down over hills again, and got to the campground for the water taxi an hour early. We purchased some junk food in the camp store and enjoyed some decadent Cadbury chocolate and fed the birds bits of chips! THe water taxi back was a lot of fun, as the guy stopped at a nature island reserve where we saw tons of seals, and also a penguin in the water.

All in all, it was an all around fabulous experience, albeit a few sore muscles!