Pelorus River Track from Captain Creek Hut to Browning Hut
Hiking time: 08:30a.m.-07:00p.m.
Daily/Total distance: 21km/152.5km (46 hitched)
Steps: 36046
Weather: sunny

I got up at 7am today and started packing everything up except the tent. There is still quite an accumulation of sandflies below my tent fly. The fly is also wet from condensation. I went outside to eat my breakfast. As the sandflies were already out and about again and I couldn’t be bothered otherwise I ate my porridge cold soaked. Wasn’t so bad actually. The sandflies were already really aggressive. I couldn’t be bothered with putting repellent on this early in the day so I got everything ready to go and set off at 8:30am. The only one to have left before me were the Kiwi lady and a Kiwi guy who also joined last night.

The track started out quite steep, soon crossing the first swingbrudge of the day.

The track rhen continued up and down next to the river, soon crossing another swingbridge. Here I met the kiwi lady and then overtook her. The track went further up and down and across another swingbridge. As I reached Middy Hut I stepped inside to sign the intentions book, had a granola bar and then continued going.

Soon enough I reached the next swingbridge. This one was feeling more unstable than the previous ones. The netting on the sides was also loose in places so that a wrong step could result in your whole leg dropping through.

While crossing the Bridge I heard someone shouting. But as I didn’t hear anything again I continued on. The track now went further and further uphill with many many roots in the way. I felt like I was tripping on every second step but luckily I wasn’t. I can understand though how the shoes don’t hold up too long on the TA as there were a couple of times where I felt like I had just ripped the shoe apart. Halfway towards Rocks Hut the kiwi lady caught up with me. She had been rushing for the last half hour. Turns out, as she was at Middy Hut she heard someone shout for help. Thinking it was me or the kiwi lady she ventured on hearing the shouts a couple of times until she heard a helicopter. The helicopter though was behind her so she wasn’t sure anymore where the shout had come from. I must say I heard nothing beside that one shout, and that one had sounded more like someone whooping for joy. Now that she was with me she slowed down again and we got talking while walking further uphill. She has actually been rescued twice before due to injuries in the bush. Additionally she was there for 2 more rescues of other people. It was quite interesting hearing about her experiences. I just hope I will never have to set off that PLB that I am carrying. I’ll be quite glad if it will stay to be dead weight in my backpack all my life.

With time she started falling further behind as we have different hiking speeds. I arrived at about 1pm at Rocks Hut. She was not in my visible vicinity anymore. At the hut was a couple going NOBO as well as the kiwi from the morning who was just getting ready to set off. He evidently didn’t need rescuing.

I started spreading out my tent fly and groundsheet to let them dry. 20min later the kiwi lady arrived. I was wondering where she was at. Turns out she took a small break to refill her water bottles at a small waterfall in order to not diminish the water in the raintank at the hut. We settled to eat our lunches. I was soon hungry and ate my whole package of pretzel pieces (still from Germany) with cheese. I also finished off 759ml of Raro with that. Afterwards I got ready to set off again. I felt really well to continue moving and didn’t want to end the day at 1pm already, even though the hut was really nice. She decided to continue waiting at the hut. She wanted to make sure that the Dutch family is alright as she was leaving towards Nelson with them tomorrow giving them a ride. So I continued on alone at 2:20pm. The track now confined further on uphill and I was therefore already questioning the wisdom in carrying on. But I knew it wouldn’t be long before I reach the top.

Close to the top I came upon a big section with many fallen over trees. There must have been a massive storm or storms coming through here before as the root plates of the trees were huge.

This section, while impressive looking, was really frustrating. A lot of the fallen trees had the trunks at such a level that I couldn’t climb over them but at the same time also couldn’t go below them with my backpack. So I had to take my backpack off over and over again. Nothing worse than taking your backpack off and putting it on repeatedly. (I heard later from others that they crawled under the trunks. That idea never even crossed my mind. I always tried to crouch under it.)

After half an hour of navigation through that obstacle course I was finally back in normal forest with just annoying roots going downhill. Then the track went on to an exposed section above the bushline where there was just scrub and rocks. This is the kind of landscape that I enjoy hiking in:)

I managed to get some phone reception up at the exposed section, so I used the opportunity to send messages to everyone that I was still fine and planning another 6 days to be offline in the bush. Then I ventured on. I enjoyed this section the most so far from the hike. While some of the poles used to mark the trail were hard to depict I enjoyed the ruggedness of the landscape.

After this the track went back into forest and further downhill. Especially the last section just before Browning hut was especially steep and full of roots. This had me going really slowly. As I reached the sign for the hut I only had about 30min left to go. The sign wasn’t all that clear though. It pointed to the hut behind me where there was no track. I gathered then that it must be the track to the right as there was nothing else signposted for it. Within 5min on that track I checked with my GPS position that I was still on track. This last stretch really took the 30min signposted as the roots and the steepness made it really hard to go at a reasonable speed.

At 7pm I finally arrived at the hut. There was a family if 4 set up in a tent just next to the creek. Closer to the hut there was a couple also just looking for a campspot. The ground didn’t look to inviting for another tent so I opted to stay in the hut. I also couldn’t be bothered at this point to set my tent up.

Inside the hut was already someone else. A German girl who walked from Rocks Hut today. She didn’t seem to happy to have me there. Said she had been looking forward to having the hut to herself. Well so was I, but I don’t seem to have the same problem sharing that she has… So I got my things sorted and went to the creek to get water and do a small catwash. It is too late and cold now to go into the water. The creek also wasn’t that big.

Back in the hut I started to get my dinner sorted as the kiwi lady arrived. She had waited and the Dutch family arrived in one piece, same with the kiwi/Swiss couple. She then went on with the Dutch family. The family though decided to spend the last night on the trail together and camped up at the exposed section. I would have liked to do the same but I had run low on water at that point and therefore needed to reach the hut.

So we spent the next hour sitting around and talking while us two had our dinner. This was the first time I made the ramen bomb. It is 2 min noodles that you then pour mashed potatoes flakes into. I also decided to add my tasty cheese to it. The result tasted quite good, not something one wants to make at home though. The cheese had the problem though that it coated the spoon as well as my pot with a layer of melted cheese that was hard to get off. This resulted in me spending quite some time at the creek trying to wash the pot. I even used a lot of sand to clean as I had left my scrub at the last tent ground to shed some packweight. I finally got a level of cleanliness that I could live with.

Back at the hut I spied some mice just as I was going into the hut. So we decided to hang up our food to the drying rack that is attached to the roof. As we were getting ready for bed we also heard the pitter patter of animal feet on the roof. Seems that there is more living in here with us besides the spiders and insects.

Before turning in I took care of a new blister that had developed that day which even got some blood in it. I popped it as it would have burst the next day hiking anyways. This way I can treat it with antiseptic over night.

I was in bed at 10pm though I couldn’t sleep yet as it was still too warm inside, so I turned to read some more.