Days 115-117: Harper River Track

The Harper River Track was a nice cool down section for us, after busting our butts on the Harper Pass and Mingha-Deception tracks. We got some more good river valley views, stayed in a "flash as" hut, and made it to the last of our Wellington food boxes, at Lake Coleridge Lodge. 

From Bealey Hut, where we stayed following the Mingha-Deception, we climbed up to Lagoon Saddle, which did indeed have a lagoon. Along the way, we had good views back over the Waimakariri (say that seven times fast, I dare you) River valley. We could even still see all the commotion at Klondyke Corner for day 2 of the coast to coast race.

View of a braided river from above

Waimakariri River valley from above

More of the river valley. The mountain run portion came down the center valley and
 ended at Klondyke Corner, the little green nub sticking out of the left hand mountain

From the saddle, we spent the rest of the day on easy trail before ending up at Hamilton Hut, which is often referred to as "The Hamilton Hilton".

Lagoon Saddle shelter - no bunks inside, but we thought it was really cool!

West Harper hut. The trail notes said it "provided historical
significance, and welcome shelter in bad weather"

It was kind of cool inside - all hand hewn timbers -
but we were glad to not have to stay there

For contrast, the inside of the "Hamilton Hilton".
Note that the sock drying rack over the fireplace is mounted on
a pulley, so you can adjust its height. Folks, this is luxury.

The Hilton was, in fact, quite a nice hut. It was pretty crowded though - it's the halfway point on a popular 2 day loop, and we stayed there on a Saturday, so we shared it with about 8 other people. With the exception of the night at Goat Pass Hut with all the race officials, I think this was our most populated hut stay so far.

The next day was another easy one. We cruised further down the Harper River Valley, passing The Pinnacles, an "interesting geological feature" along the way.

The Pinnacles

Harper River

Toward the end of the Harper River, we had a triumphant moment. The official trail sent us several kilometers out of the way to cross the river on a bridge. Because it was so low, we decided to try to ford it to save some time. It turned out to be another piece of cake crossing, and shaved 45 minutes of walking off of our day. We pushed on to camp at Lake Georgina, a small lake about 12 km from Lake Coleridge. While we were there, we had the pleasure of running out of toilet paper (don't worry, we had a few emergency backup tissues to get us through) and drinking lake water. Don't believe what they tell you, backpacking is fun!

Easy road walking on the way to Lake Coleridge

The next morning, we woke up ready to get to a warm meal and a real bed. We cranked through some more road walking, and then finished up with a lovely connector track.

Dramatic, but ultimately harmless clouds

Liz made me stop so we could take a picture of the spray painted cat thing

Connector tracks are Te Araroa specific tracks that have been built to connect different parts of the trail together. In many ways, they're really awesome, because they often save tens of kilometers of road walking. However, they are also almost always terrible. They're usually in spots where trails have no other reason to exist, and often weave between private land owned by people unwilling to allow public access.

This one was no exception - in one spot, it sent us through a tussock filled swamp, with a farm road 10 meters to our left. We weren't supposed to walk on the road, because it was on private land. The swamp, of course, was public. We were good citizens for the first and second swamp sections, but by the third one, I'll admit, we got fed up and just walked on the road. Shh, no one will ever know.

Note the "trail" on the left, and the road on the right...

Lake Coleridge with whitecaps

The connector track was over quickly though, and we crested the hill to see the Rakaia River valley. The Rakaia River cuts directly across the trail, but is unfordable (at least where the trail crosses). As a result, the trail notes tell you to find your own way around. You can either hitchhike, or shell out a decent chunk of change to get a ride around.

The Rakaia River valley, with a power station in the foreground

We arrived at Lake Coleridge Lodge, a fancy lodge in a tiny town, a little before lunchtime. We had been planning to take a day off here. Unfortunately, we discovered that the paid ride to the trailhead across the river is only available tomorrow, so we had to choose between a zero day and a sure ride. We're both feeling a bit worn down right now, and probably need a rest day - we've only had 1 in our 27 days on the South Island!

However, a combination of not wanting to spend all day hitching (or, worse, walking much of the 70km of road to the other side), and the high cost of a room here made us decide to skip the zero day for now. Because of conservative estimation when we mailed all of our food boxes from Wellington, we now have several extra days of food with us, and might end up taking a day off in the wilderness if we find a nice hut along the way.

From here we have two tough sections coming up - the Clent Hills Track and the Two Thumbs Track (where we'll hit the highest point on the trail!) Both have pretty rugged terrain, and it sounds like Clent Hills doesn't have much in the way of "trail" - it's mostly just poles marking the way through hills and tussocks. Sounds fun!

It feels like we're making real progress though. At this point, we've finished 550km of the South Island, and have another ~750 to go. Once we get past Clent Hills and Two Thumbs, the going sounds like it gets a bit easier (with a few exceptions). Even though there's still a ways to go, it's kind of scary to start thinking of life after the trail. What will we do without somewhere to walk every day?