By Ruth
Distance: 31 km
After a restful and restorative day in St Arnaud, where we had a delicious breakfast and coffee at the hotel restaurant, sorted out our food for the next section, cooked a healthy lunch at the hostel, soaked in the hot tub, and went out for dinner and a glass of wine, we set off into Nelson Lakes.
Today’s walk was long but mostly flat, so we thought it would be pretty manageable. Also the weather was supposed to be decent, with some light rain in the morning but then clearing up later. It turned out to be a lot tougher than we expected.
First of all, because there was a lot of rain in the past 24 hours, the trail was very wet. There were many big mud puddles, and also places where the trail was flowing with water, like a stream. Because of this it was slower going than we would have wanted.
We reached the first hut, Lakehead hut, in time for our morning snack. From there, it was a further 14.5 km to the next hut. The trail was more of the same, muddy and wet. There were occasional glimpses of the surrounding mountains and the river, which were very impressive, but mostly we were in the trees, looking at the mud. We reached an open grassy area where we stopped for lunch, but we were quickly swarmed by sandflies, making it not the most restful break. I paced up and down the trail while eating my wrap to try keep them away. Usually lunch is really refreshing and restful, so that was a bit disappointing.
We reached the second hut around 4 pm, and decided to push on to the third one. We had heard from people heading the other way that there were lots of people planning to stay at the next hut (Upper Travers) tonight, but we thought we’d try our luck anyway. To complicate things, it began raining again just as we left the second hut, and continued for most of the way to Upper Travers hut.
We finally arrived a bit before 6:30 pm. It had been a pretty gruelling day, a lot of work with not much payoff in terms of views or fun walking. Now looking at the distance we did, I can see why we’re tired!
The hut was pretty full and we didn’t feel super welcomed when we arrived, but we did eventually get a bunk each, so that was good. We met some other TAs, including a Dutch man who we had previously met in Kerikeri the night before we headed up to Cape Reinga to begin the TA! A cool trail moment for sure.
Tomorrow we cross the Travers Saddle, which means more elevation gain, but a lot less distance than today, which I’m looking forward to.
