34. Kahui – North Egmont (AMC 4)

Thursday, March 14: Clear skies above this morning, cloud below, a couple of half-hearted showers, a few sunshowers and fairly warm

Tramping: 18.6 km

Colin & Theresa’s (airbnb, $68.9)

Was up around 6:00 this morning after all the sleep from yesterday and nothing much was very dry, but it all had to be packed in. Noticed almost too late that the water I was trying to boil had almost the color of the coffee I was trying to prepare. The water from the drinking tap was not much better, but anyhow the coffee had to be finished up, as well as a couple of other things.

I was ready to go by 8:00 and had enough time to look around for the lost croc for ten minutes. Nothing found, so I set up the GPS. I had left the ski undershirt on, had the camera in the pack, and had the pack cover on as well. Got a signal after a while and set off.

The vegetation on the side of the track was fairly wet on the way up, but then an area was cleared along the way so the trousers didn’t get that wet. After about ¾ of an hour I was down at the turnoff and made the decision to try the Stony River crossing. Still, the signs were off by a large factor and were not consistent.

Quite a march to the river and by the sounds of things surf was up. It hadn’t rained significantly as far as I was able to determine and Lukas had gotten through yesterday. The valley itself was quite impressive and in full swing no crossing was possible. But the trick is that the track crosses six tributaries one after the other, with a couple of hills in between, but it never crosses the main stream whose roar was never quite distant.

After the sixth crossing the track begins to climb and soon I was at the turnoff for Bells Falls, with the signed time to Holly Hut being 40 minutes. During this period it started to rain, but in the end I made it to the hut in just under three hours. Time for the last muesli bar lunch, the last of the dried apricots, to try to get some of the clothes I was wearing dry and to change sox. The hut itself is huge and apart from heating there is also lighting, but again, no running water in the kitchen.

With the rain dwindling away I took off on the last part of the track. First a gentle climb up until around 1300 m, and that is where the detour kicks in. Long and very steep steps and on the freshly washed soil the tracks of two trampers and a couple of kiwis. Long time to get to the bottom and came across one tramper on his way to Holly. At the crossroad at the bottom I took off the rain jacket to try to get the shirts dry, took out the camera, although by now the battery was @ zero, and started on the way back up.

Here it was a climb down, then up again and was trying to imagine when the Veronica Loop might make an appearance as some rain started falling again. Impatience at the end of the track is never a good thing and I charged along, found the loop track, and that, too, seemed to go on forever. But then the end was there.

Interactive Map

Dumped my pack in the foyer of the visitor center, and went to ask the Doc staff to put a call through to my shuttle provider to see if they could come earlier. Said and done, another driver was dropping people off at 4:45 and would pick me up, which left me with a good hour to look at all the exhibits and chat with a couple of other tourists. The place closes @ 4:30 and I was out pretty much on time, having resisted the temptation to buy a bottle of orange juice.

Reinstated the wallet, changed the camera batteries and sat in the warmth of the rather milky sun. Pretty much on the dot of 4:45 Jana turned up with her guests and loaded me up as well. She was very chatty and I convinced her to drop by Bulteel St to pick up my suitcase and drop me off at Colin’s.

Here no one was at home, except for another guest, Eric, from Magdeburg, and we had a beer together while we waited for our hosts. They were a little delayed, and neither of us had any device to contact them with. In the end they turned up, and we were introduced to the house. I had a shower, then Eric had his while I unpacked a thing or two, and then went out first for some beer, and then being unable to remember Jana’s tip for lunch settled on a mixed fried rice for $11.5 at Noodle Canteen on Devon St. Back here Eric had convinced Colin (or, more likely, Theresa) to provide him with a Malaysian Chicken Curry for dinner, and I sat down to write the diary.