By Chris Russell, 04 January 2025
It was just after new years. I was in Nelson and had stayed a night at Jack’s place which was a much needed rest after spending 5 days at the music festival Twisted Frequency. I got dropped there by a friend from Twisted and now my plan was that while I was already in the south island I might as well tramp back to the ferry. So I went from 5 days of music festival to 5 days of (mostly) solo tramping. Luckily I was much less sleep deprived from Twisted then I was the year before. I say mostly because I did manage to convince Jack to join me to the first hut on my route, as a daytrip. Now my original route was that I wanted to finish off the Richmond section of the Te Araroa that Jack and I attempted 9 months before.
Flashback time
I remember that I had just got back to Wellington from 3 months living in Queenstown and I was settling back into Wellington, meeting all the friends I hadn’t seen in a while, and re-connecting with the tramping club. I was at a pre-uni Welsh Dragon meeting catching up with my good friend Jack Huygens and wanted to get straight back into tramping in the North Island. Though we took one look at the shitty weather forecast around Wellington and immediately we started thinking about going to the South Island. So back on the ferry we got. We started the TA section at the Red Hills carpark. Things were going well but I noticed some strange bowel movements of mine. It was only a week or two before that I caught Norovirus from some water source in Arthur’s pass. And unfortunately it didn’t seem to gone entirely, this was not good. That night we stayed at Porter’s Creek hut after only just managing to find it after dark (Seriously it was very difficult following DOC markers spaced 200m apart on a wide open creek bed at night). And the next day I felt alright until after passing Hunters hut and were heading up Mt Ellis. That’s when our progress slowed down to a crawl as I started having to stop every 5 minutes due to lack of energy. Then on a bouldery section of the track Jack had a little accident where he fell and hit his head which shook him up a bit. We made it to Top Wairoa hut somehow and due to it being on the TA and it still being TA season in March we had a very uncomfortable sleep on the floor of the hut. It was obvious to us now that we were not in a state to continue a long multi-day tramp so we had to change plans. We decided that the Ben Nevis ridge looked like a really cool option that had great views and would take us straight to Nelson which means a place to stay since Jack’s parents live there. I was still low energy but then I took two caffeine pills and then I no longer felt sick and started wizzing ahead of Jack even. And Ben Nevis did have stunning views and even a cool pinnacley part of the ridge which made it more interesting. So I have zero regrets about going off the TA and cutting the tramp early.
Flashforward time
So since last time we only got to Top Wairoa hut, this time we started at the Wairoa Gorge to head up the track to Mid Wairoa hut. The track there was lovely and at the hut we met a bumblebee that would absolutely not leave Jack alone. The hut book mentioned beware of the ‘friendly bee’ so apparently it was a local. Here I said goodbye to Jack and continued to Tarn hut. On my way there I caught up to a girl tramping, taking it slow up the climb. My issue was I wanted to overtake but also I knew I would probably give her a fright if I did. I tried saying “Excuse me” and then I realised ‘oh god she has airpods in, she can’t hear me’. So at a strategical spot in the track I overtook her off the track slightly, but alas, I did scare the shit out of her. Anyway that led to us having a chat about where we were going. I always had fun in these chats because it was all TA walkers and they are always surprised to hear that you are in fact not doing the TA. I have no idea what her accent was but I thought it was cute and she seemed nice. I got to Tarn hut at about 6:30pm. It was summer so the sun set at about 9 and I decided I could make it to Mt Rintoul Hut with only a little night walking and so I kept going, the TA walkers at the hut were again surprised I was not calling it a day and saying at Tarn. But before I left I thought it would be fun to leave a comment in the hut book “to the girl I passed, you’re cute :)”. I’ve never flirted in a hut book before, or while tramping at all but why not, I was probably never going to see her again anyway, but it would probably make her day. I then got to Mt Rintoul Hut at about 9:30 and I did have to put on my headtorch for the last 30mins or so. The hut was full and everyone was asleep so I made an effort to cook outside in the small entrance way and quietly move my sleeping gear onto the floor after I was done, and I went to sleep after an 11 hour day.
Day 2
This is where I have my least favourite interaction with any trampers ever. I woke up as the others in the hut did, and I must have done a good job being quiet because they made the comment of “Oh there’s a new person here”. Then one had a chat with me and I told them about my big day yesterday and what my plans are. But when I mentioned I walked in the dark for a bit she was like “You shouldn’t have done that! That's dangerous!” and some of the others chimed in to agree with her. I had barely just woken up so I didn’t have the mental capacity to argue with them on that so I just stayed quiet instead. There was nothing dangerous at all, as an experienced tramper, following a well formed DOC track in decent weather in the warm summer after dark. I think I was annoyed because they must have assumed I wasn’t that experienced. Then another guy was like “Hey man, move, you’re in everyone’s way”, as I was packing my stuff up anyway. I had to sleep in the middle of the floor because that’s all that was available. Anyway I felt very unwelcome at that hut so I packed up quickly and didn’t eat breakfast until I was on the trail. My breakfast was surimi btw. I had packed very interesting food because I bought my food from the discount store in Nelson, which is cheap food past its best before date, and is mostly confectionery/snacks. But I found 1kg of surimi and I love that shit and it’s cheap. I was still annoyed at that interaction for quite a while, also I didn’t have the best sleep. But what was therapeutic was that I had a lot more nice chats with the TA walkers I passed on my way to Old Man Hut, who were all lovely and apparently a lot of them had gotten word that there was a big group of unpleasant people ahead of them. And so they were planning to not stay at the same hut as them. That made me feel way better lol. Despite it being a group of bad eggs I was still like ‘fuck staying at TA huts I can go over cool places with less people’. And so I changed plans to stay that nice at Lake Challice hut instead. At Old Man I also noticed green stuff coming out of my pack! And then I remember that some dude at Twisted Frequency gave me 2 avacados but I forgot about them! Lake Challice was beautiful there and I had the entire place to myself that night, how nice. I also found that large fox glove leaves work amazing as toilet paper btw! This had also been an 11 hour day.
Day 3
Next on my exciting new plan was getting to see Mt Richmond finally, the mountain that the range is named after, which isn’t actually on the TA. But there isn’t a nice track from Lake Challice to Mt Richmond, so instead I had to walk along a lot of forest roads, hell yeah (sarcasm). Yeah the forestry roads were pretty boring but they were easy at least, and the weather was perfect. I had a dip in the river before heading up to Mt Richmond Saddle hut. Similarly to yesterday I got there at about 6pm and I decided I could probably continue onto Mt Fell hut. The views on Mt Richmond in the sunset were amazing. I also got this insane effect where the clouds started rolling up the cliffs between Mt Richmond and Mt Fell, which then blew back onto themselves which led to some amazing photos! This time I got to Mt Fell hut at dusk without having to turn on my headtorch, just. There were 3 older men who had gone to bed but weren’t asleep and they were nice and didn’t mind me making some noise and cooking in the hut. They had just come for an overnighter from the forestry roads. And I went to sleep after another 11 hour day (11 just seemed to be my number for this tramp).
Day 4
Now I had realised the night before that due to my food scheme being completely different this trip, I had actually not packed enough food for 5 days. I thought maybe I should wake up with these guys and see if they would give me a ride out to Blenheim. But after my long days tramping I woke up at 6am when they did and then promptly fell back to sleep until about 9am once they were already gone, bummer. Though I had an absolutely lovely morning with the sun beaming in the hut, I felt relaxed after a great sleep. And then I noticed there was actually some food left in the hut, yes! A packet of ravioli in tomato sauce and a can of chick peas. That was my breakfast and the extra meal would just be enough for me to go across the range and leave to Nelson instead, which is nice because I could stay at Jack’s which means a hot shower, a good sleep and getting to catch up with him again post-trip. I also thought I could probably get there today if I walked for like 12 hours, but I had reception and it turned out his parents were coming home from holiday that evening so it wasn’t the best time to stay the night because they would be busy, so I planned to stay at Rocks Hut (oh no a TA hut) and get to Nelson midday tomorrow instead.
I was excited for this section of track because on topo, to descend off of Mt Fell there was a marked ‘chain ladder’ which sounded fun. I was a little disappointed that it was actually just a chain handrail across the bluffy bit, it wasn’t very sketch at all. Under the bushline the ridge went on for ages but I finally got to Middy Creek Hut. This was the first encounter of the Pelourus River on this trip and it looked so nice so I had to have a swim. Then from the edge of the river bank I heard a “Hey!” and you would not believe it but it was the girl I met on the way to Tarn Hut. Though she had been travelling at a much slower pace, because I had chosen to take a long-winded way to this point on the TA, we coincidentally crossed paths at Middy Creek Hut! We had a nice chat, and no I did not get her number, but she did appreciate the comment!
Back on track, next was Rocks hut for the night. Because I had a sleep in I still got there pretty late even though this was only an 8 hour day. Luckily Rocks hut sleeps 20 people which is much more than the other TA huts around there. I didn’t get a bunk but I got a mattress around the dinner table which was just as good! And the people here were nice as well. Though they were still very surprised that I had just come from Mt Fell hut out of all places. You could see Mt Fell and Mt Richmond from the window of Rocks hut and it looked so far away lol.
Day 5
Finally the streak of amazing weather ended and today was rain, just rain. Luckily it was only about 4 hours out to Nelson. And it was very boring, especially since I followed the coppermine trail which is a perfectly flat mountain bike trail with actually quite little scenery. I actually ran into a weird issue where since I was getting soaked through, and since the track was so flat that it took no effort I was actually starting to get cold. But luckily since it wasn’t a huge day I didn’t get to hypothermic levels but it was relieving getting to Nelson, changing into dry clothes in the campground toilets and then getting a ride back to town in Jack’s warm car. Jack being a local showed me the best burgers in town and that was a great way to end the trip. The next day I got a hitch hike from Nelson to the Picton ferry to return home. On this trip I learnt the Te Araroa = boring, go do something different if you can lol
