Urchin Track Misadventure

Well I've been living in Tauranga six months now, and I haven't been able to convince my vet buddy Steve to make the drive from Hawera to visit me up here.  It's been ages since I saw him (ie six months), so I had to configure a crafty plan to get to see him.   So I found a weekend we were both free, and found a 2 day tramp that was just about halfway between Tauranga and Hawera.  He couldn't think of an excuse to get out of it, so a-tramping-we-will-go!

The tramp was actually two tracks, the Urchin Track and the Umukarikari Track, which both lead to the Waipakihi Hut.   We took two cars and parked one at the start of each track so we could cut out the 6km walk along the road between the trailheads.   

Saturday morning we started on the Urchin Track, as my (shitty) guidebook said this one was the tougher track.  18.5 km to the hut.  My book said 6-8 hrs, the signs said 7.5-9 hours.

The first words in my guidebook were this-

"The Urchin Track is unforgiving."

You bet your butt it was!  The first 1.5 hours were ALL UPHILL.  I think we gained about 700 meters of elevation, straight up.  

But it was worth it!  At the Urchin Trig, we got views of Mount Ngauruhoe (right) and Ruapehu (left, unfortunately obstructed by clouds).

Peak Bagged-  Urchin Summit- 1391 meters.  Yay!

We had our morning tea break at the top.   We look so cool, calm, and collected, eh?

The next part of the walk was fantastic--- a windy, rocky trail right along the top of the ridge.  And mostly flat, to boot.

Our next challenge was the descent to the Waipakihi River.  

It was a toughie, and quite technical in parts.  Took us almost an hour to get down.  The whole time I thought to myself, "Wow, I'm glad we're doing a loop track so we're only going DOWN this part... I couldn't even IMAGINE climbing UP this-- you'd have to use your hands, arms and feet (plus have your pack on!)"

Here she is... our BFF, the Waipakihi River.

Book said it'd take us 2-3 hours to get to here (correct).    It was before noon when we got here.  Another 4-5 hours to the hut (and these signs are always generous).  Sure, we could do that.  Dinner definitely being cooked by 5pm at the latest.

So, this wasn't the most popular of tramps.  We saw NO one the first day (and only 3 on the second day).   The track description said that the track along the river was undefined--- no track, no poles, no markers.  Just follow the river, and cross the river when you need to, and in 10 km, you'll be at the hut.  Sounds easy enough, right?

Here's the river.   In the beginning, at least one side had some nice stones to walk alongside the river.

We walked another hour and a half and took our lunch break.

Here's Steve, relaxing, and forgetting about the world (and the rest of the tramp ahead!) for a moment :)

Here I am, pondering what lies ahead (and just how many times we're gonna have to cross that river!)

So mid afternoon, things started to get more technical.  The tussock got higher...

The bushes got WAY scratchier....

 The river got deeper (but still beautiful bluegreen!)

We were finding ourselves in the river a LOT more frequently.  At many times, there wasn't even a walkable option on either side of the river.  So we spent a good deal of our time actually just walking in the river.

The rocks were slippery in some places, and we had some near slips, but fortunately both of us stayed fall-free.

However, it started to get a little dark.

And we had no sign of the hut yet.   Clock was at 4:45, and Steve had a serious chat with me.  We came to the conclusion that it was getting late, the river crossings were getting harder, and perhaps we made a wrong turn at one of the river forks.  If we didn't reach the hut soon, we should turn around and start walking back---because the farther we went meant the farther we were going to have to walk back if we still couldn't find the hut.   My heart sank, I got a little scared, but I totally agreed.   30 minutes was our time limit.

5:15 came, no hut.

We turned around and started walking back.  SO many emotions!   Confusion (where did we go wrong? a wrong turn?), dwindling hope (but what if the hut was just another 5 minutes around the bend?), fatigue (we had been already walking for 8 hours), hunger (nothing new--- I'm just about *always* hungry), fear (if I slip in this river and sprain my ankle or break a bone we have no cell phone reception so I'm SCREWED!), apprehension (OMG we don't have a hut to sleep in tonight!).    I did my best to keep these emotions at bay as emotions consume energy.  After a few near mishap slips in the river and some more ouchy scrapes I had a mini-breakdown--- mini meaning only 4-5 tears and all cured by one Steve hug.  And a granola bar :)

Whew!   So we walked back the way we came towards the track start for another 2.5 hrs.  By 7:30 it was getting dark so we decided to set up camp.  Since we didn't have a tent, all that meant was rolling out our sleeping bags, taking off our soggy boots and socks, and getting some water boiling for our dehydrated dinners!

 Here we are, spending the night "in the bush"....

One of the crappiest nights of sleep in my life.  Heaps of tossing/turning, feet cold at the start of the night.  Only a few raindrops, easily avoided by sleeping bag over the head.

We survived a night in the bush!  YAY! 

 I was slightly groggy in the AM, but nothing a cup of coffee and bowl of muslei couldn't solve...

Here's a good picture of the high tussock we slept in.

Two of the coolest things about the night were 1- SOOOO many stars!  and 2-  I heard my first Kiwi chirp! (quite a distinctive sound, might I add)

And plus, there's nothing too uberly scary in New Zealand animal-wise, so we didn't have to worry about getting eaten by bears/snakes/etc.

But I *did* wake up to find a nice pebble of deer poo on top of my sock.  

 How the @*(# did THAT get THERE?   I'll never know...

2+ hours of walking back along the same river.   Pausing a few times to take in the scenery...

Then remember that descent down to the river I mentioned?  Yeah, that was a b#tch to climb up.  Our legs and bodies were quite sore, but here we are at the top of the ridge again!

A bit over 5 hours of walking on Sunday, and we were back to where we started.  Not our intended destination, but oh well.  We were safe and injury-free and didn't require any helicopter rescuing!

Steve and I debriefed our adventure over a coffee in the nearby town of Turangi.  Somehow my adventures with him always turn into misadventures (ie the broken derailer on my bike on the Queen Charlotte Track, the wearing out of brake pads on the Heaphy Track, and now this can't-find-the-hut-so-sleep-in-the-bush situation).  And surprisingly he's still talking to me, and still my friend!  I owe him big--- for keeping me calm and leading the way back up the river when I was tired and only could focus on putting one foot in front of the other, let alone navigating river crossings!

We decided that our next meetup will be something fun yet calm and relaxing ... involving little chance of risk and misadventure!

Can't thank you enough Steve!  You are awesome.
Until next time...