Start – Locke Stream Hut
Finish – Arthurs Pass
Daily Distance – 26km + 19km hitch
TA Distance – 2203 km
Day 5 since embarking on the Harper pass track. Day 5 of permanently moistened feet and the cheery
spectre of trench-foot. I may have missed something in the small print with regards this section.
Today was described in the trail notes as “…travel is down the Taramakau river and is easy through bush
and open river terraces”. What this really means is that you’ll be walking on large, ankle twisting rocks all
day, except for brief bush sections where you’re scrambling along on a vague path because the actual
track has been washed away. It may be clear, but I haven’t exactly loved today, or to be honest, this whole
section. It doesn’t help that I have been feeling rather nauseated today, so I haven’t eaten enough to keep
me bouncing down the trail with any greater urgency than a mildly vigorous trudge.
Speaking with hikers heading Northbound there is apparently another heavy day of rain coming
tomorrow. The local DOC office are apparently already advising people not to tackle the next section of
track because of the last rainy day, so I have beat a frustrated retreat to town this afternoon. Fortunately
town was only 1 large river, a savage cloud of hitch-spot sandflies and a 20 minute drive on the highway
away. I am frankly pretty annoyed to have to bail out of a second section because of the weather making
the trail impassable though. It’s not as if NZ is a particularly dry country, so routing the trail through
sections that are so easily affected by rain seems idiotic and a receipe for disaster. I was fortunate to meet
people who had come from town, otherwise I would quite possibly have been stuck in a hut at 1000m
unable to go forward or back until the rivers dropped, or I got desperate enough to attempt the crossing.
Anyway, rant over. To make up for missing the last part of this section, I have decided to walk out of
town and summit the invitingly named Avalanche Peak (1833m) once the rain has passed tomorrow.
Once described by Lonely Planet as one of the finest day walks in NZ I am very much looking forward to
it.
Unfortunately, there are no photos again today. Between rain showers, numerous stream crossings and
parts which required wading down rivers, my camera never emerged from its protective dry bag.
Apologies for the slightly downbeat post. Between the drizzly weather, not feeling 100% and my own ill
advised attempt to carry 12 days worth of food, this section has been a hard one.
