Today was a much needed day of doing not much at all. I awoke in bed at Martin’s hut, listening to the first of about a hundred rain showers crash down onto the roof. Ah, how wonderful it is to listen to the rain, and not to be in it. To have shelter.
I woke up early with the sun peering through the glass window around 7am. Today seemed like a great day to build a fire, given that there was already a load of wood inside the hut. I got it going around 9 and by noon, I was fresh out of wood! I scavenged some pieces around the forest, although they were all wet and mostly rotten. Oh well, they burned well enough with how hot the fire had gotten. I had them smoking above the fire to dry them out before adding them to the pyre.
Around 4pm, I heard the sound of foot steps approaching the hut. Someone opened the door; a fellow TA hiker, named Loic, from Switzerland! Sweet!
We spent the next few hours comparing stories of the trials and tribulations that were the last stretch of trail through the mud and the freezing rain. It was nice to have someone to share the misery with. We both started with the intention of doing the whole south island TA, and now we were both having different thoughts about it.
In fact, this was the day that I decided that there’s no need to do a “continuous footpath” of the Te Araroa, or to call this a thru-hike. If I miss some sections of pure mud, sheepy farmland, or road walks, I’m all about it. Who would want to walk in those conditions anyways? Especially in the constant deluge of cold that we find ourselves in here, at the beginning of the Spring Season. I came all this way for the mountains, so that is where I will head after finishing this section of trail. I will skip about 100km of farmland trail (which is supposed to be closed for lambing right now anyways–another great reason not to do it) and pick up the trail east of Te Anau, the town dubbed the “gateway to the Fiordlands.”
It was the day I decided that my experiences here would be a collection of separate adventures, with the Te Araroa as the general backbone of the route I would take as I walk, but by no means will I feel inclined to hike every step of the official trail. Heck, even the TA trust make it pretty clear that the trail is a work in progress, and some parts of it just plain “don’t work” for me.
Many TA hikers have the same opinion, skipping the long, boring road walks in favor of spending more time in the truly remarkable areas of this gorgeous country.
So we’ll see what happens the next few days. I’m leaving it all up in the air from now on. Maybe I hitch out and do some alternate routes. Maybe I stick to the official route. I’m down for whichever is more interesting and feasible in the moment.
My new TA friend and I kept the fire going until dark, enjoying our camaraderie as the first fellow NOBO hikers either of us have met. We kept the fire going until darkness fell, with the sound of rain again striking the roof above me.
Goodnight!