Start – Upper Waiau Forks
Finish – Waiau Hut
Daily Distance – 7 km
TA Distance – 2040 km
I can’t be 100% sure, but I’m reasonably confident that Waiau hut is built upon the gateway to sandfly
hell! The swarm is so great that their attempts to get into my tent sound like a gentle patter of rain. It
would be rather soothing if every drop of this rain didn’t want to suck my blood and leave an infuriatingly
itchy bite behind. I imagine this is what Kiwi illustrations of hell look like. This and with a side order of
rabid possums.
It is fair to say that today has not transpired to be the relaxing day that I had hoped. After the exertions of
the previous few days and a thunderstorm predicted this afternoon, I decided to only walk for a few hours
and take it easy for the remainder of the day. While the rest has been welcome, being stuck in a 6 bed hut
with up to 12 other people was not part of the plan. Understandably people are reluctant to venture
outside when every inch of exposed flesh needs to be liberally covered with insect repellent to avoid a
fetching patina of parasitic flies. On a positive note I have managed to wade through the trail notes to plan
out food shopping and resupply parcels for the next few weeks. There are also 2 impassable rivers coming
up that the TA route kindly leads you to and then leaves you to figure out a way around. I’m not 100%
sure what to do about these yet as I need phone signal to research the options fully, but I at least know
when I encounter them now, so can be prepared.
The rest of the day has been less productive. After several long days I’m behind on my blog writing, but
my efforts to catch up have largely been stymied by a case of writers block. Also, as tends to be the case
when a group of underemployed hikers are together, the conversations were many, varied and largely
nonsensical. Today’s crucial topics included whether Willie Thorne was the best thing to come out of
Leicester, the relative merits of smooth vs crunchy peanut butter and whether the TA route is part of a
giant sandfly conspiracy to ensure plentiful feeding throughout the summer months. Some days the
greatest surprise is that not long ago we were all successfully masquerading as productive members of
society.
