Southern Adventure - Part Four - Humpridge Track

 Sat 27 Nov - Tuatapere (Rarakau) to Okaka Lodge (Day 1)

We awoke to mostly clear skies and sun. What a relief after the overnight rain. Breakfast was first on the itinerary, and when in Tuatapere that needs to be the Sausage "mini big breakfast". For me, anyway.

Same photo, new day

We were relatively early on the road, driving the 30 min or so to Rarakau road end to start our adventure. We turned up at the same time as Callan and Stacey, as well as a couple of other cars.

We looked around for our check-in point. Nowhere to be seen. Hmm. "You did check in at the Tuatapere office didn't you?", said one of the women who was leaving with us. "It was really clear in the info email."

At this point my phone rang.

Emma on the other end of the line was very helpful and had clearly dealt with this before. "Just download the maps from our website." "We'll let the lodge know that you won't have tickets". etc etc.

Oh well. Learned this for next time. The women who arrived with us quietly rolled their eyes at two blokes who didn't read instructions.

Humpridge track map (humpridgetrack.co.nz)

So, off we set. The first part of the track mostly followed a 4WD track along the shoreline, past cribs and fishing huts, sometimes dropping onto the beach or going up and over rocky points. Beautiful. 

Off we set

Are we tramping or just walking?

Angela gets creative. I can't take credit for this one.

The rain the night before had done bad things to the track in places. At one point we were basically hiking down a bubbling stream with a track underneath it. We met an older couple who were track maintenance volunteers. They knew they'd be needed after the rain and were industriously rebuilding a section of track with shovels and wheelbarrows. We chatted to them for a bit.

After a couple of hours we reached the turnoff that would take us up the hill to the Hump Ridge. Signage was ... interesting, with signs claiming the same number of km or even longer DOC Hours to go, after significant distances of walking. Lots of scratches and cross-outs on the signs. Something for DOC to sort out as they turn Humpridge into Great Walk standard next year. 

It wasn't quite lunchtime, so we decided to walk for a short distance and grab lunch in the bush somewhere nice. 

What we didn't count on was the boardwalk - and how long it was. It went on for miles and miles, through beautiful mossy ground and beech forest. Lovely but it meant there was nowhere to stop. At last we found a break in the boardwalk and somewhere to stop for our lunch.

Boardwalk goes on and on

And on

As we were eating lunch, Angela noticed her bag was a bit wet. Oh. A LOT wet. and her water bladder appeared to be empty as well. It had leaked! All through her bag! She was not happy. After a lot of unpacking and repacking, and swapping water bladders - off we set again. 

We were very close to Water Bridge Shelter - and I needed to refill my water bladder of course. (The place where the hose came out wasn't sealed properly - it held tight with water pressure but if the bag moved the wrong way it spilled all its contents. The other bladder soon showed the same problem too. We kept them on the outside of our packs from now on.) But the creek you were supposed to source water from was far, far below the bridge in a deep gully. There was an ingenious solution to this, which was a billy on a long rope tied to the bridge railing. You lowered it down, jiggled it to get it to not float on the surface of the water, and then reeled it back in with some water in it. After a few goes I was adept at the process and got enough water into my water bladder to get me to the top of the hill. 

This part of the track was going to be the hardest - a quite steep ascent of around 1000m over the afternoon. It wasn't actually too bad, with most of it steadily up and only a shortish section that was properly steep. 

At about 4pm, Angela and I came across a lady by herself, clearly struggling. "You doing ok?" "Yes, I'll be okay." We were a bit worried. We carried on and caught up with Callan and Stacey, who had decided to wait for her. When they had gone past, she'd been in tears and was considering turning back. We were (relatively) nearly there! Just 3km to go out of a 21km day. But she didn't know that and the going seemed interminable to her.

Callan and I hared off ahead and dropped our packs a bit further up. We were hoping we could take her pack for her but she demurred. We walked with her and chatted away with her. She was a Southland farmer and was with a group of friends - who had all gone ahead and were actually at the lodge already (she was texting back and forth to them). We weren't impressed at that. But it seemed to be inexperience more than anything else - if you don't regularly tramp then you don't know things like that! I haven't done too many Great Walks but I think that first day it a bit harder than your usual Great Walk - it might be an issue of people underestimating how hard it is.

Stag Point. Ready? (Click)

Nearly there!

It was 7pm before we made it to the lodge. Slow going. Our new friend was exhausted and at the end of her reserves. We were above the bushline and the cold and mist had blown in, and since we were going slow we were all feeling the cold. At last, the boardwalk began heading downwards and a collection of buildings swam into view through the murk. We were there!

The lodge was certainly impressive. A large collection of accommodation blocks, luxury units and common rooms were linked together with an extensive network of step free (and, we learned, wheelchair friendly) boardwalk that also led to a helicopter pad. Our lodge host welcomed us warmly and pointed us to our bunkroom. It was well set up with what you'd expect in a comfortable lodge. Near new, and what you'd find in the nicer ski lodges at Ruapehu. They even had complimentary gumboots - in smallish size and largish size - to use to walk to the toilet with at night.

We sorted out our sleeping bags and stuff, and wandered through to the lounge/kitchen. Now came the best part. The shop, selling dinner (for us to cook ourselves) and an extensive* range of drinks. All at totally reasonable prices**, particularly since everything has been brought in by helicopter.

* OK not that extensive, but a lot more extensive than any tramping hut I've ever been in.

** For example: $13 for the famous Sausage and Mash meal, $15 for a BackCountry Meal (same price as Macpac Riccarton), $40 for a bottle of nice wine ($25 in a supermarket). They'd all sell for double the price no problem.

Us three meat eaters happily ordered ... the Tuatapere sausage, mash and peas meal each. We each got three frozen sausages, a portion of frozen peas, a portion of potato flakes and a portion of gravy powder. But it cooked up to something amazing, and the mashed potatoes were really good, you'd never know they were dehydrated once. Yum!

Angela didn't fare so well. Their wide range of back country meals had, for vegetarians... the 'Pasta Vegetariano'. Which is by far the worst one. It's what it says on the tin - pasta (spirals) and, vegetarian stuff. I had chilli flakes with me which I think made it a little nicer. And it turns out we had vastly more potato and gravy than we could ever eat, so Angela ate a lot of that too. I finished her backcountry meal in the end.

Well fed, we retired to our dorm. I had trouble with my sleeping bag zip - it had come unlatched and I couldn't get it started again. After a while of trying and studying I realised that part of the zip was still halfway up the zip and I needed that part to make it all work. Angela and Stacey were giggling, and that's when I realised that Callan was having exactly the same trouble, for exactly the same reason, and we both slowly worked out our problems at identical times.

Oh well.

Sun 28 Nov - Okaka Lodge to Port Craig Lodge (Day 2)

The rooms were pretty cold, but we all slept really well in our nice cozy sleeping bags. I needed to get up for the bathroom at 5am - and I'm glad I did because I timed it for sunrise. The skies had cleared completely overnight, and the spectacular views from the tops had become visible for the first time. I watched the sun slowly rise over Stewart Island and the south coast. Incredible.

After a delicious porridge breakfast we were off and walking for our next day - which promised to be a more gentle descent back to sea level, following the main ridge down to the sea again. First though was a boardwalk loop up the hill and around the peak above with plenty of viewing spots for the scenery to the south and north of us. 

Then it was down, down, down boardwalk, interspersed with familiar deep Southland mud, very familiar to us from Stewart Island. My tramping boots were doing the job but Angela's feet were getting more and more sore with the constant down.

Lunch at Luncheon Rock

Two phones, two panoramas. Who did it better?

After 5 or so hours, at last the gradient lessened and we emerged off the Hump Ridge and onto the South Coast track. This was a fascinating area - we followed a tramway from a huge but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to set up a major logging operation along the south coast. It included massive viaducts, the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere. It was certainly nice going, following a dead-level, well formed railway track that went through the terrain rather than over it. 

There were lots of information plaques on the way, and of course I insisted on reading each one of them. I spent a lot of time reading, and helpfully explaining what I'd read, in detail, to Angela. I'm sure she really appreciated it.

After another three hours we found ourselves at Port Craig township, a mown area with the schoolhouse still standing and now converted into a quirky DOC hut. Then, just 50m on, was the lodge. (Last night we'd heard the story of the man who had bunked down in the schoolhouse, and not gone to the lodge, because he'd mis-read the 'Lodge, 50m' sign as meaning he still had fifty miles to go).

We heard talk of dolphins in the bay, so eagerly headed off to see them. Only to discover that it was a bit further than we thought, down to the shore. Angela decided her feet had taken enough abuse and we'd seen dolphins before. So we did the Port Craig walking tour on the way back instead, from a pamphlet with a short loop walk and information panels to tell us about the old buildings and structures we were seeing. I duly read out all the signs, in full, in my best tour guide voice.

Dolphins down there

"And here, we have the building where boilers once stood..."

We were welcomed to the lodge by Alex who was hilarious, American and sassy. She sorted out our food and beverage needs. Food, of course, was Sausage and mash again. Angela was much happier to find a much bigger selection of vege food, including a Radix chickpea meal that she reported as tasting delicious. 

Mon 29 Nov - Port Craig Lodge to Rarakau (Day 3)

After yummy porridge for breakfast again, 8am saw us starting on this short day with an easy, flat walk out to the car park. The day was stunning, and we were walking on the beach for much of the day. 

THE SOUTHLAND SASQUATCH! Totally not two deer prints at all.

We were back at the car park before 3pm, wearily and happily changing and getting ready for our next journey. I'm so glad we hooked into Callan and Stacey's idea of these trips, thanks heaps you two! It's a part of the world that was great to re-visit and explore.