The track is supposedly one of the most beautiful walks in the world. I feel like I'm being repetitive, describing everything I see and do in New Zealand as "one of the (superlative adjective of praise) (place/activity) in the world," but bear with me please. Anyway, the Great Walks are among the most tourist friendly, with occasional toilet facilities, huts for hikers not fond of camping, and treated drinking water in some places. To top it off, Abel Tasman is in the sunniest part of New Zealand, and the weather has been excellent for the past week or so.
So why nervous? Because as much as I like to think I enjoy a good hike, I haven't actually been properly backpacking in at least a decade. Basically early high school was the point at which being a teenager reared its ugly head and I stopped "having the time" to go on hiking trips with my dad. So besides having to buy all my gear for this trip, I also lacked any sort of experience in taking a trip like this as a responsible adult.
Pre Hike:
On Wednesday, I did my last prep for the trip, which involved buying food and making a last ditch run through an outdoor equipment store. Luckily I was able to find a small locally-owned store with one of those fabled old guys who works there and knows everything about anything. I tried on a goofy sun hat, which amazingly fit me (size XL-XXL). I made an offhand comment about how ridiculous I looked, and put the hat down. In proper old guy form, he said "You know, when I hike, I don't care how I look. I care about what's comfortable, and what works." You bet your ass I bought that hat.
Buying food was another challenge. Despite the huts along the way, the hike has no cooking facilities, and I have no camping stove. So, no hot food for me this trip. My menu for the trip goes as follows:
1) Breakfast (x2): One Square Meal bar. Sort of meal replacement, basically a Clif bar. Got one in cranberry and one in chocolate flavor because Mom's not here to stop me from eating chocolate for breakfast.
2) Lunch (x3): Beef jerky, crackers, and cheese, with the cheapest trail mix I could find in the grocery store. Also an apple. Side note: the grocery store here is called Countdown, which seems like a silly name for a grocery store. However, I heard that they are owned by Safeway, which is also a silly name for a grocery store, so maybe it's a corporate policy.
3) Dinner (x2): Protein bar, beef jerky, and crackers. I never claimed to be a traveling gourmet. I did buy myself a bar of chocolate to ease the pain of the other foods I was putting into my body.
Oh, and another thing. There's been a chest cold going around the hostels down here, and at this point I was (I hoped) on the tail end of it. I'd been hacking up my lungs for the last few days, and was hoping that a regimen of Vitamin C, Mucinex, and a few days of sobriety would clear it up. It seemed to be working, but I was still a little under the weather at hike time.
The Plan:
A shuttle bus would pick me up from my hostel at 7, and take me to Marahau, where I would catch the water taxi to Totoranui, 40 or so kilometers north. Over the next 3 days, I'd walk back to Marahau where the bus would take me back to Nelson. At night, I would sleep in my brand spankin' new Hennessy Hammock, which my mother thinks looks like a chrysalis. She's not a fan, but I think it's pretty cool.
Day 1:
The shuttle picked me up, and took me to the water taxi. I got my first bad sign when the taxi guide lifted my bag, and grunted "Whoa, that's heavy." Way to go, me. Anyway, the taxi took us out to Split Apple rock, which would have been a pretty cool looking boulder sticking out of the water, except it broke clean down the middle and looks even cooler.
The driver then steered us 15 minutes up the coast, past several huge hills and beautiful bays, and pulled us into a cove. We're here, I thought, and mentally prepared myself for what looked like a long walk. "This is Anchorage Hut, the last hut on your journey," he said. Crap, so all that walking was one damn day. Turns out 40 km even looks like a long way. No turning back now though.
The water taxi took us into a bay so we could see the seals, who were pretty awesome
Eventually we got to Totoranui, where we unloaded onto the beach. By this point I'd introduced myself into a trio of Canadians doing the hike at the same pace as me, and as I've become used to this trip, I invited myself along on their family trip.
Getting dropped off.
We set out, and walked a damn long way. The first day was 17.7km, almost half the overall trip. That's a long way to go with 100% of the trip's food on your back. But the track was, as advertised, jaw-dropping pretty.
Totoranui
Travel Buddies
Gratuitous beach shot
We eventually made it to Awaroa tidal crossing, which had been a giant bay when our water taxi had taken us by earlier. By about lunchtime the bay emptied, and was absolutely covered in seashells which we unceremoniously stomped across through ankle deep water to reach the trail on the other side. It's worth noting that at lunchtime I realized 2 things about my food situation:
1) I had forgotten the cheese to go with my beef jerky and crackers.
2) Thanks to poor reading comprehension, my "beef jerky" was actually New Zealand's version of Slim Jims. Crap.
Awaroa Crossing
After Awaroa, we walked another few hours before we got to Onetahuti Bay, where we took some time for a mid-hike dip in the Tasman Sea. The floor of the bay was covered in starfish and sand dollars, so we had to tread lightly.
Here I am, being a little tea pot, by the Tasman Sea. By request of my travel buddies.
I made the mistake of traveling the rest of the way to Bark Bay in my board shorts. Turns out, New Zealand has sand flies, which are just as bad as mosquitoes. My legs are covered in itchy red bumps. It's a great look.
I was sore and exhausted by the time we made it to our campsite. I wished the hike was over, and thought I'd probably never go hiking again. My cold had come back with a vengeance, so I was about as miserable as I can get. I threw on some warm clothes, and went about setting up my hammock. Also, I forgot to mention this earlier: thanks to a lack of sturdy trees, I hadn't ever fully set up the hammock before taking it on this trip. Probably not ideal, but what do you know, it worked! The hammock went up on the first try, and I slept like a baby that night.
Day 2:
I woke up at 9:30 to an entirely empty campsite. Every other camper had woken up, packed up their tent, and gotten out of dodge before I even stirred. Crap. So I packed up in a rush, and went to check the hut for the Canadians, to see if my hiking buddies had waited for me. Fortunately they were still finishing breakfast, so I had my own and prepared for another day of hiking.
One of them offered me some ibuprofen, which in retrospect probably saved the rest of the hike for me. Ah, the glory of over the counter medication. My knees and my lower back no longer reminded me that I'm getting older with every step, and my right shoulder stopped aching. I powered through the second day of hiking like a champ. 12.1 km later, we made camp at Anchorage.
Gratuitous hat picture
I read my book for a few hours, then played cards with the Canadians until we called it a night. Again, I slept like a baby in the hammock. It's quite nice to camp and not sleep on the hard ground. I didn't have to deal with the perennial rock that's always in the middle of your back underneath the tent floor. Five stars, hammock maker.
Day 3:
It sounds horrible, but beautiful beaches get old after a while. In this case, a while is 2 days. For the last 12.4 km, we didn't stop at any of the beaches, and only paused a couple times to marvel at the views. At this point, I had eaten the last of my food with my breakfast, and I had a handful of trail mix to get me out of the track. I set a mean pace, and covered the hike in a little over 3 hours.
I spent the rest of the day reading and resting, until the shuttle bus took me back to the hostel. I ordered a pizza, took a shower, and almost did laundry before I passed out in my bed.
So that's what my first Great Walk was like. I'm excited to say I'll be trekking my second Great Walk in 10 days, as I take on the Milford Track! For now, I'm spending a quiet day in Nelson before taking off for the Franz Josef Glacier tomorrow morning.
Cheers,
Jared
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