BOYLE VILLAGE – ARTHUR’S PASS

Section Distance = 171.5km

Total Distance = 1054 km

Hang on, what happened to hiking St Arnaud – Boyle Village you may be wondering… in short, RAIN. Lots and lots of rain!

After hiking from St Arnaud to John Tait Hut only to find flooded rivers, washed-out bridges and with more heavy rain forecast I decided to do the responsible thing and turn around. So, after a few rest days in Hanmer Springs waiting out the bad weather I jumped back on trail further south and will go back to complete that section later on. Not exactly the plan I’d hoped for but rolling with the weather is all I can do 😃

 

Moving on from mountains this section was all about rivers and valleys and my first day back on trail began as you may expect when traversing a valley… with river crossings! (And I’d only just got my boots dry from the last soaking 🥾😅)

BOYLE VILLAGE – HOPE KIWI LODGE 

The trail between Boyle Village and Hope Kiwi Hut follows the river through beech forest (which I’m now associating with mud, bogs and a lot of windfall), along grass flats (I’m not going to lie after traversing the Richmond Ranges I was VERY excited to see grass flats), across a swing bridge and up to the hut. This section can also be ridden and there is a fenced paddock behind the hut for people who ride their horses up to the hut for the night 🐎

 

HOPE KIWI LODGE – HURUNUI NO.3 HUT 

The next day started fast on the river flats before entering the beech forest up over Kiwi Saddle and undulating up and down the river bank – slow going clearing all the windfall blocking the track as we went to hopefully make life easier for any hikers behind. 

There is a hot spring pool beside the track but after just spending a few days in Hanmer I decided to continue onto the hut without taking the plunge…

Hurunui No.3 Hut was built in 1939 and is one of the only original huts still in use today!!!

 

HURUNUI NO. 3 HUT – TARAMAKAU RIVER 

This day marked my first 1000km on trail and in true TA fashion it was memorable. It started with gales and rain, finished with blue sky and sunshine and threw in some tricky terrain to keep me on my toes. 

After a boggy start slogging through muddy beech forest and across my first 3 wire bridge, the track climbed through dense vegetation (should have packed some hedge trimmers 🤷‍♀️), over Harper Pass (962m) for a lovely view of the clouds, down a steep descent of loose slippery rocks, across several rivers (or the same river several times 🤔) and finally to some gorse covered flats where I set the tent up for the night 🏕.

I found kiwi tracks (in some cow poo) but didn’t hear any calling overnight. After a lovely dinner on the riverbank I spent 20 minutes finding every sandfly in my tent before going to sleep 💤

 

TARAMAKAU RIVER – GOAT PASS HUT 

Headed off early the next morning for a looong hiking day. 13 hours (for my short legs anyway I’m sure most people do this bit way faster) from my river side camp to Goat Pass Hut. I was a little skeptical about leaving the refuge of my tent when I saw the swarm of sandflies that awaited me… 

I crossed the Taramakau River which was thankfully low before heading to the Morrison Footbridge and the Mingha-Deception Track. 

This route presented some challenges in the form of slips (to get around), the Deception River (which I crossed MANY times) and lots of rock hopping, climbing, and generally ungraceful scrambling…🤣 The last few hundred meters was a vertical climb up the creek to the hut. 

Thankfully the sun decided to shine which made the constant river crossings refreshing rather than freezing!

Santa made an appearance at the hut and there were hardly any sandflies the further up the valley I went which made snack stops all the more enjoyable.

 

GOAT PASS HUT – ARTHUR’S PASS 

Christmas day!!! The day began by crossing Goat Pass (super easy as the hut is located literally 20m below the pass) and descending into the Mingha Valley. Some sections of the track had boardwalks which was a nice contrast to the boulders of yesterday… The last few km were all river flats before hiking up the road to Arthur’s Pass Village.

I heard several Kea while in the valley but hope to actually see one in the next few days 😁

 

Christmas Day/Boxing Day was a combination of relaxing and calling family and sorting out logistics for the next section. I had sent a bounce box to Arthur’s Pass in case the store was closed over this period but it had not arrived at the backpackers. Thankfully, another TA found it at another location and it has just been dropped off to the wrong address…crisis averted. 

I also met some more lovely hikers and would go on to have a little trail family for the rest of the south island! 

Next section, heading south towards some more big rivers and some stunning lakes in Te Araroa Part 10.