From Methven to Manuka Hut
Hiking time: 07:10a.m.-08:00p.m.
Daily/Total distance: 37km /584km (215.5 hitched/skipped)
Steps: 54035
Weather: sunny and clear all day, clouds moved in around 6pm

This morning my alarm went off at 5am. I needed to be by the iSite by 5:50am to take the school bus to the trail head at 6am. I had a hard time getting up and maxed it until 5:15am. Then I really got up and moving. Brought all my gear into the lounge area to pack as it was still pitch black outside. With my gear all in the lounge I went back outside to grab my tent as well. Then I set about packing it all up very fast while also brushing my teeth and getting breakfast in the form of soaking porridge in a peanut butter jar and two waffles in the toaster ready. I zoomed out of the holiday park at 5:45am. Never packed so fast before. But then again, I wasn’t wearing my shoes yet, only my jandals. I got to the meeting point 2 mins late but it was alright. There was a lady with a high vis vest as well as the two Canadian guys.

The bus came and we got going at 6am. The driver told us that they pick up students at the end of the road where the trail is, which is why they offer this service. The poor kid is picked up at 7:15am for a school start at 8:45am. I would sleep on the bus every morning. We drove along the south side of the Rakaia river and here you could really see why this river is so dangerous to cross. There was very fast flowing water in quite a few places and the river is braided in this huge riverbed.

As we were driving the sun slowly started rising, coming fully out by the time we reached the trail at 7am. We signed a book, paid and said goodbye to the driver. The others were off immediately while I still sorted some minor things out. By 7:10am I was also off.

The trail first ran through cow paddocks. I had to circumvent so much cow shit going up. Sure, it would wash off with the river crossings but I still didn’t want to step in a fresh pile. The cows were watching me very attentatively. Some ran away as soon as I came, others looked closer at what I was doing and a few even came towards me before deciding to rather run off.

After roughly an hour of this the cow paddocks were over and the track continued on a 4w drive. It siddled up the side of a small mountain in a zigzag form. Not the typical kiwi tramping style of crossing any obstacle straight ahead, but I guess this is due to the limitations of the trucks going up the mountain.

Going up wasn’t to hard and the sun had by now also come out over the mountain. At the top it continued for a bit before dropping down again into the valley.

I reached A Frame Hut at 9:45am, signed the hut book and carried on. The other two were here as well, taking a break. I made a short stop shortly after to apply sun lotion as the sun was by now blazing down.

The track continued softly going up and down. At this section my knee was hurting quite a bit on the uphill section surprisingly. But I managed to massage it away and could continue. The Canadians overtook me again.

Here came also the first river crossings. The first two were completely useless as one could have stayed in the left side of the river initially. But I embraced the wet feet at this point, knowing it would come to that anyways in no time at all.

I arrived at Comyns Hut at 11:20am and stayed until 12pm to filter some water and eat something. I finished most of my bag of crisps. Then I used the very nice and not smelly toilet with a view before continuing on.

Immediately after heading off from the hut I had to walk in a river. The next part now included going upstream along the North Branch Ashburton River. Crossing it multiple times and at times even wading through it going upstream.

This took quite a while as the stones in the river were slippery and even on the bank the gravel was tricky as you could easily roll your ankle. Going along the river took 2h.

I met a couple of NOBOs at this point. One couldn’t believe that I had come from Methven that day. On this section the chords of both of my gaiters broke. This was a pain as I now had sand and stoned going into my shoes. I find it stupid anyways that Macpac sells these gaiters without something going under the shoe. There are holes for something on both sides, but nothing included. Without something they won’t hold in place at all.

At the end of the river section I therefore made another stop. I cleaned out my shoes in the water to remove stones. I also gave my socks a wash. They are wet anyways so I might as well try to get the sand out. Then I applied more sun lotion and continued on.

Now the trail continued upwards to the Clent Hills saddle. It is not too high, but nevertheless strenuous, especially with the sun up high and strong.

The trail now has few wmarkers which are quite far apart. The track also isn’t formed as such, so I mostly bush bashed my way through high grass towards the next pole that I could find. Reaching the top afforded me a great view into the valley behind that I had just come from. I could also see ahead all the scree slope I would have to cross next.

So I followed along the scree slope. I had to make sure to concentrate on where I was going and not to overbalance towards the left side, as the way down is long.

After the first scree slope the track went a bit up and then down through high grass.

Then followed 3 more scree slopes that had to be crossed until the track finally continued on a path through the grass down into the valley.

At this point, my shoes were quite murky look in from the dirt sticking to my wet shoes. As the gaiters are also useless right now I have to stop every so often to empty out my shoes from some grass sticking inside.

After going down I had to go up again over another hill. At this point I was quite fed up with the up and down for the day.

Coming down from this hill there was no clear path anymore. I had to look for the few poles and find my way in between. This was further hindered by gorse bush, speargrass as well as thistle.

Then I finally reached the flat. Here it was quite windy but the view of the flat was very far.

The track was better recognisable on the flat, even though the poles were still far away. I passed over going to Double hut, as it is a km of trail. I had to stop though to put on some more layers and my rain jacket as it was quite windy. I also had to grab some more food as I had still 1.5h to go to Manuka Hut.

The track was now quite easy to walk on and I had quite some speed going, managing 5km an hour.

At 8pm I reached Manuka Hut. Such a joy after such a long day. The 2 Canadians were already here, even though they had not planned to walk this far initially. But setting off so early, it was just natural to go this far. There was also a guy from America there.

The others had just finished their dinners when I arrived. So I got my water filtering washed off in the creek and sorted though my things. Then I made another Ramen bomb for dinner, adding 2 slices of cheese to it for further flavour and calories. I took a long time to finish my food as ideas also sorting through my food for the next day. The others had already moved towards their beds to read or journal while I was still eating. With everything finally finished, I also got to bed at 10:30pm. We had all set an alarm for 6am the following morning as the shuttle leaves at 5pm from the car park and it is 33km till there. So we should aim to leave around 7am.