There are so many really nice trails
all around New Zealand but the most popular are the Great Walks. The
Heaphy and the Able Tasman are two (The Kepler and The Routeburn are two other great walks I've done) that I heard great things about so I made a plan to hike them both together.
I met a fellow liftie - Dan Harrison in Westport so we could start our hiking adventure.
The start and the end of The Heaphy Track is 463 kms by road which means it is a nightmare of logistics and transport is expensive. The start of the Abel Tasman Track is only 82 kms from the end of the Heaphy so I decided that combining them was probably the best way to do it. Planning made my head hurt, but I worked it out. I would get picked up at The Brown Hut, at the end of Heaphy and dropped in Takaka. In Takaka we would have a couple hours to restock on food then we would be taken to the start on the Abel Tasman.
Dan and I met up, shopped for supplies and left my car in front of a random house, hoping it would be safe for the next week or so. Dan drove up to Karamea where we spent the night at a hostel that advertises hot showers on all of its ads, which are quite a few considering that its only hostel in Karamea. We only had to wait over 12 hours for a little wood burning stove to actually heat the hot water for a shower, go figure....
After I had my long waited hot shower (Dan had a cold shower the night before so he was all ready to go) we to headed off to Kohaihai, the start of the Heaphy.
Over all the Heaphy was great.
First day was spent walking along some amazing beaches and over beautiful rivers.
Second day was mostly spent waking uphill in a beech tree forest.
The third day was a beautiful walk through valleys and forests.
The last day was a quick down hill jaunt to Brown River where our ride was waiting.
The best part of the Heaphy was the lack of people and new huts. All the hut we stayed in had recently been rebuilt and were super nice. It is one of the least popular great walks and hardly any people were doing the track at the same time so each night we got a room all to ourselves which is a nice protection from snoring strangers or early risers.
In Takaka after we resupplied on food, we were in hopes of a shower. We were directed to a campground and were able to shower before we got picked up the start the Abel Tasman.
We were dropped off around three and had only a couple hours to the first hut. It is very different from the Heaphy, really amazing beaches and bays. The water was so blue and so green and so clear!
Once we got the hut it was clear that I didn't read everything very carefully. I assumed that the huts would have fuel and stoves like the Heaphy and the Kepler did but alas I was wrong. It wasn't the end of the world though, all we needed so hot water so we put a pot full of hot water on the wood stove. It would take forever but in the end we would get hot water. Actually some nice fellow Coloradans offered us the use of their stove to heat some water the first night.
Our second day of the Abel Tasman and fifth day hiking was amazing, beautiful and really long. 10 hours, 30 kms (almost 19 miles) long. It was a prefect day for my feet to develop blisters as well. The last two hours were pretty hard, I decided that we couldn't stop though because if we did I could feel how badly my feet hurt. When we got the hut I had to hold myself back from eating all of our food, I don't think I've ever been that hungry. Also I went to bed at 830, it was great.
The next day we were looking forward to seeing another fellow liftie, Sinead. She works on a boat in the Abel Tasman National Park. For our last night we were planning on staying with her and I was really looking forward to a BBQ and chilling out. We got to anchorage, where her boat is anchored around 330. She said she would meet us between 4-6.
The boat didn't have an movement on it and I made a joke to Dan about how Sinead was probably napping. Turns out, she wasn't napping and the boat was closed because no paying guests can booked. Ranger Steve waited till 6 to find us and tell us this info though.
He said we could camp and he would lend us a tent or we could sleep in hut, both for more expensive that usual.... We didn't really want to do either. Dan claimed that he is slept on the ground he would die. Since we were planning on getting fed on the boat we hardly had any food and we were a little over hut life after 5 nights. After a little discussion with Ranger Steve we decided we were just going to hike out that night. We could probably get cell service at the top of the hill to message Sinead and ask her if she could pick us up. So we started hiking out around 6:30pm. We hiked out pretty fast but the last hour was in the dark. It was pretty cool though there were glow worms all along the sides of the track. It was prefect timing as well. Sinead got our message and was with a fellow liftie, Mali and was able to come pick us up. They got there about 5 minutes before we arrived and had left over Thai food we had for dinner. It was awesome and I'm really glad it worked out.
It was 140 kilometers or 86.9 miles and we hiked it in 5 nights and 6 days and my feet really hurt the next couple of days.
Also the next day Mali was headed to Westport so we were able to catch a ride instead of catching the bus or some nonsense.
The boat didn't have an movement on it and I made a joke to Dan about how Sinead was probably napping. Turns out, she wasn't napping and the boat was closed because no paying guests can booked. Ranger Steve waited till 6 to find us and tell us this info though.
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