No wonder the Medium Fit trampers make their trips sound so mysterious! I have been aspiring to be an MF for months, no maybe years, and I finally thought I dared to join one of the mysterious MF trips. Well, actually I was thinking that they might not tolerate me as a punter so I put my name down to lead a trip to Lewis Pass. I had time to train – it would be my incentive to finally get in shape! Inevitably, life got crazy and I didn’t get nearly enough training in. I started looking at the trip as a bit of a gut buster mission. Surely I could make it; I’d just be a bit slow!
Preparing for the trip was a bit of a mission. All the routes I could find were either too easy for what I thought would be the mysterious MF rating (but looked good to me!) or way more than I could manage, however slowly. So, I asked for the help of my much more experienced true MF punters. There were ideas but nothing solid enough to assuage my nervousness over whether I could actually survive or not! We determined the road end however, so I was able to start working on transport options. We decided that having a van would give us flexibility on where we came out, and when. I had to wrestle a club van away from the mountain bikers, much to Gareth’s chagrin, but worth it, I thought. Then, in talking to the DOC office at Waimakariki, they suggested the van would likely be okay on the road side but I ought to take off the distributor cap or some other vital vehicular organ. Hmmm… I had visions of a tagged WTMC van with no wheels on the Lewis Pass Road. Perhaps, not then! This led me to do a detailed search in the area for shuttle services. I found the Boyle River Outdoor Education Centre who will indeed shuttle your vehicle and keep it in their safe parking area for the weekend. Phew! This meant however that we needed to get back to Boyle at the end of the trip thus restricting our choice of road ends ever so slightly. Nonetheless, all sorted.
Then came the weather forecast – oh dear. I was told by a wise Irish-Kiwi that there’s no point in planning anything for Queen’s Birthday weekend because the weather is always #$%!! I was starting to believe it. The forecast was indicating a lot of rain that would be pushed over the divide by gale force winds. Lots of ominous colours on the maps. We decided that the Nina River valley was the best option for going in as there was a bridge over the Boyle River and this was one of only two bridges. From the Nina River valley there would be many energetic options available and the Nina Hut, at 10 bunks, was one of the biggest in the area.
After a very cushy night at the Murchison backpackers (maybe we should have known that staying at the Lazy Cow would be a portent for the rest of the weekend?) we headed off to Boyle and the Nina River Valley. The weather was wet and the tops were clagged in with high winds forecast for later in the day so, the plan was to simply go to Nina Hut and hunker down. We were hoping for better weather on Sunday and Monday, but we couldn’t even bring ourselves to hope that really. Is this what MF trips are about: big plans and lots of excuses? The walk to Nina Hut, with a fair amount of faffing around the bogs and a few botany stops, was a not so grueling 3 hours. We settled in for midday tea and a few of us decided to make a foray for Devilskin Saddle. I headed off to make the climb with some trepidation, worried that I just wouldn’t be able to keep up. I was dropping behind but was saved by the short days and a fear of having to slog back to the hut in the dark. We hadn’t made the saddle but I would see more tops once we got out adventuring tomorrow!
We got back to Nina Hut to find that an extra 7 people had shown up and not all of those bodies had tents or bed rolls. Four of us intrepid MF’ers were more than happy to spend a night in the tents two of my punters had hauled in. Was that good trip leader planning or a trip leader weighing down her punters? I leave that for you to judge! We got ourselves settled in the tents and then fixed a lovely evening meal, complete with an awesome trifle dessert. Yummy! It was an early night with talk of what to do the next day. It was decided that, if there wasn’t too much wind, we would do a strong daywalk up the Grand Duchess peaks to Brass Monkey Biv and back to Nina hut. If the winds were up, we would head up the Lucretia Stream and camp at the head waters. This would give us a lovely walk across the Lewis Pass tops on Monday out to the road. We would get up at 7am and assess the weather. Off to bed early for lots of rest before my first real MF day! I was a bit worried, but still thought it would be character building.
In the morning I groggily took a look at my watch to see how much more sleep I was going to get, only to find I had slept late! Agh! 8am already! Were all the other punters up and ready in the hut while I lounged in my tent?? It was raining pretty heavily though and we had talked about trying for an afternoon daywalk if it was heavy in the morning; don’t panic just head into the hut to face the music. I dragged myself into full rain gear in the tent and headed to the hut. As I approached I got the sense it was a bit too quiet… I peeked in the door to find all the beds full of lounging punters in various levels of sleep! Well, I guess I didn’t need to be embarrassed then did I? Some of the non-WTMC guests were up and having breakfast and making to go someplace so, I decided I might as well put on a billy. Gradually the WTMC’ers stirred; no one can refuse a brew, I discovered. We muttered a few hellos and speculated on what the Nina River level would look like. Both of my plans required getting across the Nina. There was a swing bridge across but that was a full hour back down the river; a waste of 2 hours on these short winter days becomes pretty critical.
The Fit trampers, who had decided to join us at Nina Hut, also needed to get across the river to have any fun so, we were all a bit quiet about what we might do. Well, all but one optimistic and determined Fit tramper who was determined the day would clear and they should be underway to be on the tops for the moment it cleared! Us MF types muttered a few things: I suggested in a most leader-ly way that I thought it might be good to wait out the worst of the rain and for a daywalk in the afternoon. I was told by one much wiser than I, that this thought of any clearing was pretty optimistic so, we all settled in for long breakfasts, multiple cups of tea and many pages of books. There was some half-hearted staring at maps and route descriptions. Two keen Fit trampers impressed us all by heading off to cross the river and head up the Grand Duchess. They were gone for quite a while and we had all gotten over the shame of staying in the nice dry hut, when they appeared back to report that they could have gotten across the river, but not back. They decided it was not worth the risk. Very likely a great decision. Us MF’ers were feeling vindicated in piking on the morning walk in the rain then!
We all stirred around midday for a cup of tea and a session of seeing who had the best lunch food. The blue cheese, chutney and Tararua biscuits won out easily, in my books. There was an extensive discussion about who’s Tararua biscuits looked more like dog biscuits; Illona, it was decided, has quite a nice coat and clean teeth. There was a surge in motivation after lunch as there was some actual sun shining on the Devil’s Rampart that was tempting us to make an attempt at the Devilskin Saddle again. Well a few of us were tempted anyway. So, five of us managed to don boots and make head up the hill. Good thing I had company too. I couldn’t have navigated my way out of a paper bag that afternoon; I kept losing the track in the open beech forest!
It turned out to be a really nice two hour climb up to Devilskin Saddle and the cute new bivvy up there. It would have been chilly for camping so we were glad to be heading back down to our cosy Nina Hut. The skies had finally cleared and we had a beautiful view of the ranges. The red tussock over the saddle was lovely and the track was well marked. Megan and I headed back down after I dumped a litre of water out of each boot. We wanted to make sure we were back for a cup of tea before dinner.
During Sunday dinner we decided that a fairly early start in the morning would give us time to hit the Maruia Hot Springs Monday morning. Yay! Dmitri and Illona managed to play the quietest game of 500 ever while the rest of us hit our bunks early. We had to rest for our big 3 hour walk out!
Monday morning we made quick time out the Nina River valley to the NZDA lodge and then Illona and Kevin headed off to hitch hike back to Boyle for the van. Illona tried showing leg and still no one would pick them up! Ah well- they appeared back soon enough for time at the hot springs and leisurely drive back to Picton for the ferry.
So, what do I think of MF tramping? Will I dare to sign up for another one? I’m thinking that I will need more training with sleeping more than 12 hours at a stretch before I give another MF a go! I might have to learn to drink tea as well… And if you’re going to pike on an MF trip it’s important to do it well!!
The pikers shall be named!: Kate Cushing, Amanda Wells, Richard Lardner, Megan Banks, Illona Keenan and Kevin Cole. Sorry guys, had to be done!