Te Araroa Day 91, East Ahuriri River Valley to Stody's Hut

Starting km: 2531
Finishing km: 2573
km covered today: 42

Whew, that was a big day. After spending so much of the last entry talking about how great I am and how easy this stuff is for me, I guess it's appropriate that I tested myself the next day.  And I passed, albeit not with a whole lot of fuel left in the tank.

It was an easy morning, with a 5km cruise down to the Ahuriri River through wide open plains that showed almost no life other than the multitudinous rabbits that had denuded them.

The Ahuriri was slightly more than knee deep and fast flowing but warm.  A nice way to greet the sun, which was just starting to get its head above the mountains behind me.

From there the walk was an easy flow climb through a working farm. The only particularly interesting or difficult bit was walking a ways up s hill and climbing over a fence to avoid disturbing a very pregnant cow that was hanging out in front of the gate.

Things got a bit tougher when the track turned right and headed up towards Margaret Saddle. Though as it was an ex farm vehicle track it obviously couldn't have been that hard.  I doubt you could drive up it now though, as it was covered by what looked almost like shattered rock in some places. These were some highly weathered mountains.

The wind was really howling on top of the saddle, which was to be expected. This meant that I didn't spend long on the top, which is kind of sad, as with the possible exception of some bits of the Motatapu track still to come, the 1680m Margaret may be the last big mountain pass of TA.

From there it was more farm track, even windier and even more rock shard-covered, down to the Top Timaru Hut.

After a late lunch there was when things started to get a bit tough. The section to the next trail junction was meant to be 11km and take 5-6 hours. These estimates are always conservative, but 2km/h is a bit of a warning sign.

The first bit was hard work but fun. Lots of up and down, dancing along narrow tracks as they sidled along in the recently reentered forest.  Then a quick crossing of the river, then more of the same.

I was having fun with this, but next time decided to follow the river instead of leaving it when the track did.  A northbound (NOBO in thru-hiker speak) walker I'd met said it was possible to go almost all the way to the track junction this way.

And indeed it was. I'm not convinced it was much faster, and with all the scrambling to get around deep pools it probably wasn't any easier. But it was definitely cooler and more fun.

3.5 hours of scrambling up and down the be-bouldered banks of and splashing through the river and it was time to rejoin the track. Just in time for 2kms of climbing at a 25% grade. Normally this wouldn't be that much trouble, but I'd already done 40km, so it was a real slog.  I was certainly feeling some pain in my knees and tiredness in my whole body and legs in particular at this point.  "See what hubris gets you," I thought to myself, remembering the previous 'blog entry.

Up at the top, the four residents of the six-bunk Stody's Hut were welcoming, even if the hut itself was rather... rustic let's say (dirt floor, warning in the hut book about the resident rat...)

That night I woke up around 2 with a sore throat and realized that I'd caught a cold from the nice English woman in the next bunk in Tekapo who had loaned me needle and thread to repair my shirt. So maybe it wasn't just my hubris that had made the 13 hours of walking so tough.