Upon waking up this morning I realised that my knee was aching. As there is bad weather forecasted from tonight onwards I would either have to get over goat pass today or wait out the weather at goat pass hut. With the knee aching I knew I wouldn’t make the trip in one day, especially as the trail notes suggest 13-14h for it. As I was right next to the Morrison footbridge I decided to get out and get a lift to Arthur’s Pass. I planned to wait out the bad weather there and then skip to Bealey to pick up my food parcel.

While I was standing by the road waiting for a lift to Arthur’s Pass though 3 hours later at 9am, my knee felt alright again. But now I had made the decision already to get out and lack the motivation to walk up to Goat Pass Hut. I had to wait quite a while to get a ride towards Arthur’s pass. While waiting, a shuttle came to the footbridge to drop of two NOBOs and show 2 tourists over the bridge. Turns out it is it downer of the sanctuary where I want to stay. If I still don’t have a ride by the time he gets back to the bus I will ask for a ride. As I made that decision, a woman pulled over to give me a lift into Arthur’s. That was very nice of her. She was on her way to pick up a Kayak and wanted to do that before the bad weather the next day.

She dropped me off at the DOC office where I went inside to ask about the weather situation. They couldn’t tell me to much about the part of the trail I’m going towards. As we were talking I mentioned that I came from Morrison that morning and was in the Taramakau riverbed the previous day. They then asked me if I had seen the bush fire in there the night before. I was surprised. I had seen nothing. I told them at what time I was in there and when I/ turned into the other riverbed, so they figured the fire must have started after 7pm as I should have seen it otherwise before. I mentioned seeing the helicopter at 4:30pm and was informed that it was a DOC worked getting transported out. That was a relief.

Then I went to the sanctuary to get a bed for the night. The owner wasn’t yet back from the bridge so I waited. When he arrived I managed to get the last end for the night and immediately paid for two nights, seeing as the worst is coming on the next day and I don’t fancy walking in heavy rain and wind. Also with the Kea around here I prefer sleeping indoors to not have them rip my things apart. Then I did some laundry.

While my laundry was being done other people started coming in. Most of them were behind me and also decided to skip Goat Pass due to the weather warning. More and more started trippling in. I even met the Kiwi/swiss couple i had met at the beginning of the trail again. They already spent one night here and decided to stay 2 more nights as well.

We then went for food at the Hummingbird Cafe where they serve some very nice pies. I first had a Lamb kumara Pie with some chips. Later, someone came to us with this massive cone with ice cream. I wanted one of those as well and got one.

We stayed until closing time at 5pm, our group of hikers getting bigger and bigger. Some of the others got themselves some wine and beer as well. I grabbed another pie to take with me for dinner. Then it was back to the hostel where even more people had arrived. The field behind the building is certainly full tonight.

There was also the people who were with me at Cameron Hut 2 nights before. The couple had hiked past my tent the precious night. Turns out they had camped 5k before the bridge, although I have no idea when I overtook them. But then they saw the fire close by and decided to get the hell away from there, finding the next good slot to camp close to where I was by the bridge.

All three of them went over the goat pass that day and were apparently worried about me following them and wanted to leave me notes that I should make sure to get out on that day to avoid the bad weather the next day.

From another hiker who stayed at kiwi Hut the previous night we learned that it must have been planned burning from a farmer down there. At least that it what it looks like. The DOC office is sure of that as well though the farmer won’t admit to it so now they have to make an enquiry.

The rest of the night we spent sitting around and sharing stories of the trail. Seems that everyone first took the same wrong turn the previous day, only to backtrack to the eroded cliff, seeing if the could pass the cliff and then deciding to climb down into the riverbed. Also, no one seemed to have found the actual flood track after kiwi Hut and everyone just continued through the riverbed knowing that it would lead them to the bridge at the end of it. One guy even had pretty much the same long day as me getting to the footbridge and must have camped there the night before. He also arrived there around 8pm after the sun had just disappeared behind the mountains.

It was heat fun. By 10lm though most had disappeared into their tents and I went inside to read for a bit, going to bed around midnight. It is amazing how I stay up longer as soon as I am somewhere indoors with artificial lighting. In my tent I always want to conserve battery so I pretty much settle in for sleeping after the sun sets at around 9:30pm.

Today I woke up to heavy rain and heavy wind gusts beating against the house. I sure am glad I got a spot inside and don’t have a wet tent outside. This also reinforced this decision to stay the day here waiting out the weather. Apparently it isn’t so wet further down south on the next track, but I just don’t want to walk in heavy rain, even though there rid a hut with a fire place waiting at the end of the day. Two others stayed as well. One continued walking and everyone else took Bill, the owner of the place up on his offer of a free ride to Christchurch for one night with a lift back out here the next night. I didn’t want to do this though as this would mean one more day resting than I am planning to. Some time later another hiker joined us. We now were 4 TA hikers and 2 backpackers. There was another TA hiker staying outside in his tent. His choice. We all enjoyed a lazy day. Made a short dash through the rain to the cafe to grab some pies and muffins and then continued relaxing indoors. It feels really good sitting indoors and hearing the wind and rain outside, knowing you are somewhere dry.

Tomorrow I am hoping to continue on with the next section. I am skipping the goat pass entirely now as on that deception river side of the pass the weather will result in flooded rivers for the next couple of days and I do not have the time to wait for up to 5 days for the water to recede.

The two zero days now should also give me renewed energy to tackle the next sections.