Te Araroa Day 79, Hurunui Hut to Locke Stream Hut

Starting km: 2138
Finishing km: 2162
km covered today: 24

The rain started again after I arrived at Hurunui Hut and didn't let up. It was still raining when I woke up at 6:30, and still raining when I reawoke at 8:15 after having heard the rain and deciding to sleep a bit longer.

Kiwi trail runner Curly asked if I'd mind him walking with me for the day. He was in great shape, but not super familiar with walking in the mountains or crossing rivers on foot, which might be necessary depending on how far we walked.

I was going to make this entry say something like "I walked in the rain for eight hours. It was no fun. The end." But in fact while it wasn't comfortable, it was fun, and more than a little adventurous.

About 20 minutes in, I realized that my chafing problem hadn't gone away, so I had to awkwardly explain to my walking companion that I needed to take my shorts off and walk in my underwear. Thankfully he was okay with this.

The morning zipped along, with Curly setting a brisk pace that helped keep me warm.

Around 11:00 we popped in to the Number 3 Hut before starting the climb up to Harper's Pass.
Around 13:30 we passed the cute little Harper Pass Bivvy. It was shortly after this that the adventure began.

I'd seen on the map that we'd need to cross the Upper Hurunui, but I'd figured that by then there wouldn't be that much flow in it.
Wrong. There was less water than downstream, but it had been raining for 36 hours and the river was steep, so there was lots of white water and it was flowing fast.

We'd already had some pretty significant stream crossings, but this was on another level. Had I been alone I most likely would've returned to the Bivvy and spent the night. But Curly and I saw a spot above the normal trail crossing point where the river was split in two braids. We supported one another, moving one person at a time then getting set and steady and letting the other person move. And we made it across.

Fifteen minutes later the trail crossed the Hurunui twice more (these weren't shown on the map). We decided that it would be better and safer to bush bash our way up above the bluff that the crossings were bypassing. I suspect it was, but it was still a steep climb up, then a sidle across a steep slope covered in ferns, flax-like plants and dracophyllum trees before we found our way back to the trail.

After this I was happy for the final hard climb up to the pass to warm me up.

Things calmed down after this, but the adventure wasn't quite done. On the way down from the pass we missed a marker and headed straight down a narrow scree slope. We eventually realized this, but thankfully it was only a 20 or 30m scramble up through the bush to regain the trail.  From there on the trail passed through some really lovely forest.  We'd crossed the main divide and were now on the west coast, so the vegetation had changed entirely. Lots of mossy dracophyllum, rata, lancewood. Tons of ferns and horopito.

Down in the Taramakau Valley there was the occasional section of trail next to the river that had been inundated, so it was occasionally necessary to find alternatives through the bush or cross small braids of the Taramakau. (Thankfully it was never more than crossing a small braid or walking down a short, relatively [to the rest of the river] calm section near the bank, as the Taramakau was at least as furious as the Hurunui had been.)

Finally around 17:00 we turned a corner and saw a sign reading "hut.' And moments later the Locke Stream Hut itself.
There were two people who had spent the day there, penned in by the swollen rivers downstream and two others who had arrived moments before us. There was no fire going, but it was still a great, cozy, warm, dry, well deserved relief after a hard but fun day of tramping.

P.S. Though a lot of the day's adventure was tough, and some of it pushed the limits of what I was comfortable doing, none of it went beyond that. If I'd been alone I wouldn't have attempted some of the river crossings, but with Curly's help I felt okay doing them. All of which is to say, don't worry, I'm still being safe and sensible.