テ・アラロア
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Te Araroa
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テ・アラロア
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Te Araroa
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Passed by a bunch of TA hikers. Took a nap after 1.5 hours from the start. Clapsed on the trail as I felt my head so heavy and my whole body just aching. It took my entire motivation down. I didn't want to go all the way to Old Mans Hut, that'd be a full day walk. I didn't think I'd be able to make it.
The walk went through under the bushline and some exposed rocky ridge line as well. I encountered a very first Asian male on the trail. He so looked like a Japanese. We made an eye-contact and waited for each other to initiate the conversation. It felt like hours and finally, 'Are you Korean?' he said. 'No, not really' I replied. Jared and I got to Mt Rintoul Hut around noon and Jared tried to convince me to get going to Old Mans Hut. But I insisted not to. I defended my side. The hut started to get filled with hikers and the lawn patch outside soon turn into a tent villedge. It was funny to watch the people playing random stuff and a goat was wandering around.
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Since yesterday, I had a sore throat. I still didn't feel too well this morning and had a very slow day. Took me ages to get to the next hut, going down a steep slippery sketchy track by the river. Walking without trekking poles made it even harder. Because of the slow process and nervousness caused by my health status, I was pretty grumpy all morning. Jared went ahead and didn't even care. I could not handle it so I let it go in tears. But my foot kept on walking.
When we got to Tarn Hut, I had enough energy to get going to the next hut but Jared was not keen. We met quite a few TA hikers there but only one of them stayed. I think this name was Thomas, from the Netherland. He was nice. And there was this biggest case happened. The stay that supports the stracture of the backpack inserted through the back side was found snapped! What a shocker! I wrapped the broken part with tapes to hold it together and straight. Had no idea how long I have been walking with this broken pack. That made sense though, because I was having a sore back just on one side. Oh dear, it was absolutely a gorgeous day. The Red Hills was so red, the terrains were hard enough that I felt so psycked, and... and... I can't put them in words, so here the pictures.
By the way, the hut was overpopulated (the floor was filled with smelly SOBOs and outside the hut was nested by some more) so we had to evacuate to the tiny tent site near the toilet. The toilet smell was carried by the notherlie wind all night. I somehow woked up in the middle of the night. The sky was clear and the moon was on the other side of the earth. The stars were filling the black blank space above my head. It was so bright and so many that rather scared me. I had never seen this many stars before. Jared woke up and we sat outside the tent for a little while, with no words, we were just gazing the black yet bright sky. We finally took off from St Arnaud back on the trail. It's been nearly a whole week. Arrived at the first hut, Red Hills Hut, on the South side of the section at 11.50 AM. Jared and I started walking together and he was walking a bit faster than me and when I got to the hut he wasn't there. So I thought he would have been here and left already and went on going. It was sort of drizzling and one of the SOBOs that passed was wearing a black rubbish bag like a poncho.
After 20 min of lunch break I was about to leave, then somehow Jared got to the hut. Weird. There was only one track. We didn't know how this mystery can happen not so unusual on the trail. We came across a decent sized river. It didn't look too bad. But definitely I picked a wrong line and got almost washed out. That was the sketchiest river crossing so far for sure. It's been a long time since I last felt the burning legs with huge satisfaction as getting to the destination of the day- Porter Creek Hut. There were three other SOBOs staying with us the night. 'Goldie' had the fankiest, shortest shorts on him. He was just so vivid that the others would fade away their exsistances... Woke up with sore back. Snacked some junk food and headed back to St Arnaud.
I came back to my friend's place in St Arnaud and cooked food with Jared and we had some discussion when to leave... So decided to leave tomorrow. Gosh, it's been ages since being on the trail! I can't lie that I was so nervous... I was fully recovered. Surprisingly I felt so light as flying, I could just fly on my own straight to Christchurch. But I ain't have wings to do so in reality so gotta hitchhike.
I got to Reefton. It was around noon and drizzling. I tried for another ride down south and was waiting nearly an hour. But there was alomost no signs of luck. I started thinking that this probably was not going to work out. Jared sent me a message of his new plan kicking in Richmond Ranges starting in a couple of days. If I stay on my Christchurch plan now, he was going to go without me into Richmond section. I didn't want to walk alone for the 'hardest' bit. I went into the only supermarket in Murchison stuffing up the shopping trolley on every signle aisle. My pack was over-flowing with food and there was another bag filled with food hanging on my left arm. I put my thumb up again but on the opposite side of the road this time. I got a ride to an intersection where there was a dairy. I tried to catch another lift for a while but there was very few cars. The local kids eating icecreams on the bench outside the dairy were staring at me. Gosh, I felt so weird and wanted to get picked up as soon as possible to escape from their eyes. "What are you doind?" finally, one of the kids asked me. "Man... I hate talking with kids because they are so straightforward and I am not good at explaining. And they don't get accents no matter how hard I try speak clear and fluent" I thought. The kids were just curious what I was doing in the middle of nowhere. They were nice and thank god, didn't ask me any more questions, and even wished me luck. But no luck for a long time that left me no choice but make a dynamic maneuver! - what I call the 'Halloween Strategy', basically having a direct negotiation with a truck driver. I knocked a my-head-tall door of a truck that parked by the dairy. It was scary because the truck could start moving without knowing me standing right next to it. I had to be quick! The driver opened the door and poked his head out. I tried to speak as loud but clear as possible so that the driver quickly could grasp my request. "HELLO! WHERE ARE YOU GOING? CAN I GET A RIDE PLEASEEEE?" I said. He made a hand gesture to let me hop in his truck. It was my second time being on the truck. It was very loud inside that we made little conversation that was far from smooth. He dropped me off at the intersection and he kept on going. He was very nice. It wasn't getting dark yet it was getting late on clock. There was hardly any cars on the road. I was so exhausted hitching all day. I pitched my tent and laid my body on the hard bedroll. The concrete I felt on my back was harsh and cold. The occasion noise made by cars and mostly trucks kept bringing me back to reality from dreams. I was listening to the tapping sound of rain droplets hitting my tent. Gladly, I was recovering fast and was able to get up and eat. But I wanted to make sure that I leave no vulunarability for next section- Richmond Ranges so I was staying on bed all day... except for a few hours in the afternoon. Jared asked me if I wanted to go for a walk up to Mt Robert. It was stunning and was really really fun despite my strength was weakened a lot that the mid-aged local hikers were catching me up on the hill.
At the same time, I started making another plan. Maybe I could visit my dear Emma in Christchurch while this storm was locking us out. Got reunited with Jared. The Israeli guy certainly passed my massage to Jared but not exactly how I said - "There was a Chinese girl wanted to say something to you."
Okay, firstly, the guy didn't want to mention me as "Asian" because he thought that would be racisist which is definitely not! Then he forgot I was Japanese so he said Chinese. Secondly, what's "something"???? That's the most important part! But luckily Jared was smart enough to know what he meant me. Well, the bad part was not really this... I was getting really sick. Sick as puking sick. When Jared turned up, I could hardly keep standind and holding the entrance door for letting him in. I probably got this from the sick people at Boyle Flat Hut or the rain I had for a few days and the period that just started. Anyways, I was dying. It rained a loooooot last night.
Had a chill day with other a few hikers who are exremely sick. Probably bugs are spread around the community... Actually, I attemped to walk to Anne Hut in the rain. Well, it was supposed to a small creek running down across the track, but they were flooding and the track was turning into a river. Brown water made the river bottom invisible which made me very hard to step in. I walked forth and back again and again, crossed the flooding creek a couple of times but eventually made up my mind to turn back as thinking of the bigger major rivers coming later to cross. If I'd see anyone coming down from Anne Hut by 3 pm, I would attempt to Anne Hut again. At 1.30 pm, an Aussie mid-age couple showed up from Anne Hut. But following their advice, I decided not to go tomorrow. As the next couple of days are still going to be really wet, I made up my mind to call out this entire section. So I'll walk out back to Boyle's villedge tomorrow with these sick South Bounders. It was the biggest and hardest decision that I've made so far. I woulnd't know if it would be right or not. I could regret of what I've done. I was almost going to cry. Being overwhelmed by the dilemma between my responsibility to stay safe and my ambition. It only rained and rained. Being anxious and ashamed. Repeatedly the thoughts goes around and around in my head. Maybe I should've gone, could've pushed through, broken the barrier of my comfort zone. Maybe it's just because of my mental weakness that I gave up fighting and chose to e lazy. I would even feel better if anyone could slap my face saying "You, lazy hiker! Get off your arse and walk, Bitch!". I decided to skip the Nelson Lakes section.
I started walking out the way I came with SoBos. I don't know if this would be a right call or if I'd keep regretting for the rest of my life. But the reason why of this callout was that I am coming back to Nelson Lakes as a hut warden in February. If there's a chance, that would be it but not now. I hitchhiked to St Arnaud while other TA hikers were headed to Hamner Spring, to the other direction. It was a bit sad to say a goodbye. I reached to St Arnaud and was walking to my friend's place a few kms out of the township. I met a tourist walking in the bush and asked him to pass my message to Jared who should be still in the section and about to get out today or tomorrow that he'd have a place to stay. It was raining. I was walking on the side of the road. There was a helicopter flying so close above my head that I thought it could chop my head off. It landed about a hundred meters ahead in front of a big truck pulled over. I took my phone out to take a photo because it was my first time seeing a helicopter this close. Then, there were a few messages received from Stuart the TA SoBo I met a couple of days ago. "Hey Wako, you get through or out ok? Lochlan got rescued by a helicopter" Stuart txted. He gave me more information further on and besically it was that Lochlan who I used to walk with for days was one day ahead of me and was camping by the river on the night I decided not to keep going and stayed at Boyle Flat Hut. The Waiou river flooded over night and he got trapped. He had to activate his PLB for emergency rescue. If I had push myself to get to Anne Hut or Waiou, I would have been in the same situation as his. I thought myself as a chicken but Stuart said I was sensible. That was maybe a little bit better to phrase it. The weather forecast is predicting on going bad days for a week or so. For now, since I don't know what to do whatsoever I'm going to eat. |
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