The weekend was fun!?! Friday evening – we left the car at Kiwi Ranch and caught the Club transport up to the Putara roadend. We started walking at 9.42 pm so we had to be out by 9.42 pm on Sunday evening to do the 48-hour S-K!
We arrived at Herepai Hut at 11.16 pm – I think the trampers who were already there would have been cursing us as we got up at 3.50 am and were away walking at 4.28 am. It was a pleasant start to the trip – a beautiful sunrise.
A meander around to the East and West Peaks (admiring the great Hoar Frost) then it was down over Dundas to Arete (the only bit of redline for me!). There were amazing haloes in the sky – circular rainbows around your shadow – I think they are called Brockenspacks or something like that (Brocken Spectre? – Ed.)
We climbed onto Pukematawai for a lunch stop with a view. Phil and Lisa wandered by – we were wondering what had happened to them (they had already scared off their third party member Simon, who only made it as far as Herepai).
From here we faced the dreaded Dracophyllum Ridge – but DOC has done a little work since I was last there, putting in a few orange triangle markers – still it was reminiscent of the Marchant, the only difference being that the Goblin Forest was interspersed with leatherwood as well as mossy trees. It’s easy territory to lose the track and often we became temporarily sidetracked!
A small stop at the top of Nicholls (we couldn’t be bothered walking the 100m down the hill to the hut – we were starting to feel tired!) then it was the two-hour walk over Crawford to Anderson Memorial Hut where we had a 15 minute stop before leaving there at 7pm with Phil and Lisa to attempt to make it to Maungahuka Hut. We knew that we would be walking in the dark but Lisa was confident that she knew it well enough and the evening was fine so off we trudged.
We watched a beautiful sunset while climbing Aokaparangi but noticed the Hogsbacks rolling in over the ridge between us and Maungahuka. It was dark by the time we reached the top. After spending a while making slow progress and having trouble finding the right ridge off and with the wind picking up and envelopes of mist, I suggested (with some hesitation) that it may be better to bivvy out for the night and continue on in the morning. Lisa – in true S-K fashion – really didn’t like this suggestion as it may have decreased our chances of doing the S-K in 48 hours, but in the end she was outnumbered. We managed to find the only flat piece of ground (off the top) and crawled under the leatherwood.
After a quick feed of hot couscous it was into the sack or should that be orange survival bag which Jenny and I shared – with her sleeping bag. We had both our sleeping bag liners and our mats in the plastic bag too. We knew it wasn’t going to be the most comfortable night and when Jenny hopped into the bag (I was already in it) we got stuck – there wasn’t enough room for our hips so she had to slide out. We just managed to fit in if we lay on our sides, back-to-back. When one of us wanted to turn over or move a foot or something, we had to wake the other person up and move in a synchronised fashion.
I think I managed to doze a bit but I wouldn’t recommend it. At least we weren’t cold and the leatherwood provided an excellent windstop! In the morning, we opened our eyes to find that we had slid downhill a bit and our feet were firmly encased in the billy – much to Phil’s amusement – an amazing feat!
After a lazy start we wombled on to Maungahuka for rolled oats, arriving at 8am. With renewed energy we tackled the Tararua Peaks and headed off for Kime. It gradually became warmer and warmer, and with each uphill the flatulence became worse and worse. We devised a rating scale judging farts on noise, fragrance and permeability – unfortunately we had decided that Jenny would be the pace setter for the weekend which meant that I was tail-end Charlie. The flatulence problem ensured that an adequate following distance was maintained but the lack of non-man (or should that be woman)-made wind meant that fragrances lingered. On spying the last big hill up to Kime, I politely charged ahead for a bit of refreshing uphill. Getting to Kime was like being on home turf – the good old Southern Crossing, but when you are used to running it, it all seems a lot shorter – I am sure Marchant ridge has grown in length! Being a car (Carr), I switched on the cruise control button at Alpha (though I wouldn’t call Marchant a cruise – plod would be better) and dosing up on fuel we made it out past Dobson’s before the light disappeared and I had to turn my Carr headlight on to stay on track.
We made it out to the Marchant roadend at 9.35 pm – with 7 minutes to spare. I then had to jump into a real car to drive home for a warm shower. Unfortunately the punishment wasn’t quite over yet I was enjoying a luke warm shower (thanks to fluoro-red sunburn on the old legs) when one of my flatmates decided to flush the toilet upstairs – my legs leapt out of the shower so fast that I ran into the wall! (Sometimes flatting really can drive you up the wall!)
The S-K is a great trip to do but one last pointer to make it more enjoyable: wear your boots in BEFORE you go – blisters are sole destroying! (Sorry, couldn’t resist that one!)