Middle Earth Adventures

McCrain's in Middle Earth
A travel dialogue of our adventures in New Zealand

In February 2004, Jim and Kathy McCrain began a five month oddessy in New Zealand. Kathy was transferred to Auckland for a temporary work assignment, and Jim followed her for moral support. (Isn't he just the greatest husband?) What follows is Jim's account of this adventure.

Waimakirere/Harmon Pass

March 30, 2004

I met a young woman at Charlie B's Backpacker, and we were both planning to hike the Waimakirere/Harmon Pass route the next day. So, Amy and I traveled together. Amy had lived in Christchurch a few years ago so she knows her way around the City and the countryside. But here is the real kicker. She is from Amarillo, Texas! I come all the way to New Zealand, and I am going hiking with a fellow Texan! What a weird planet we live on! Of course, we Texans do tend to stick together!

After a two hour bus-trip up into the mountains, Amy and I arrived in the little town of Arthur's Pass. We checked in with the Department of Conservation (DOC) to register for the trip, and then proceeded to hitch-hike the 10 kilometers to the trail head. 20 minutes later, we were hiking. The "Waimakirere/Harmon Pass Trail" is actually a "route" with only the occasional marker to let you know you are on the correct path. It is a very good exercise in route-finding abilities and navigational skills. It is rated as a "demanding" route, and is only recommended for extremely experienced hikers. I was about to find out why!

Our first "obstacle" was 13 kilometers of river crossings. The crossings started out as a simple calf-deep crossing of about 30 yards. This was quickly followed by deeper and deeper crossings, all on rough, boulder-strewn river beds. These rivers do not have nice, small-pebbled bottoms, but instead are comprised of river-rocks the size of footballs. A twisted ankle is a very high likelihood if you are not careful! The farther along we went, the deeper and more often the crossings became. After trying to keep our feet dry for the first hour, we finally adopted the attitude that "There ain't nothing to it but to do it!" From now on, each river crossing would be met with a look, a splash, and some wet feet! (Not to mention wet calves, knees, thighs, and sometimes waists!)

The hillsides we were passing soon became mountain-sides. These were all covered with very thick and lush forests. The forests actually looked like a wall of vegetation. Whenever we would enter the forest, it seemed that we had actually stepped through a wall and had entered into a very dimly lit yet extremely green room! Occasionally, we would see a "track" but most of the time we were still working directly from a map and compass.

Our reward for seven hours of bushwhacking and river crossing was a stay at one of the many "huts" that dot the New Zealand back country.Not having experienced these huts before, I was still carrying my own tent. This is NOT something I will carry a lot for the rest of my NZ trip! The huts are broken into several categories. The Carrington Hut is a Category Two hut. That means that it has bunks with mattresses, a heating stove, and a water supply. Okay, ALL of the huts have these, but a C2 hut is bigger and nicer. There were tables for eating, counter-tops for food prep, running water (cold only), an out-house/toilet (called a "long drop"), and beds for 32 people. The other hut categories are smaller and not quite as new. Still, they are more comfortable than sleeping in a tent!

The next morning, Amy and I set out for the hike up to Harmon Pass. This involves an early morning river crossing that is normally made in a small wire basket "cable car." However, the car is broken, so we have to ford the waist-deep river. There is a reason there is supposed to be a cable car here! This is a cold, deep, swift river! It WILL wake you up in the morning, though! After the crossing, the route winds it's way up another creek bed, but I actually mean UP! If it were to start raining, this creek bed would soon turn into a raging waterfall.

Of course, it started raining. ... And it rained all day!

After hiking up the creek bed in the rain for an hour, I realized that the route was only going to get more difficult and dangerous the farther that we went. (We still had three days of tramping to do to get to the other end of the trek.) I suggested to Amy that we should turn back and head out the way that we had come in. After all, the dry creek we had started up just a few hours earlier was now much more than ankle-deep. She agreed, and we turned around.

That waist-deep cable-car crossing was fun! It wasn't a LOT higher yet, but it WAS a lot more swift! It had turned into a white-water river. From there, we had to trek back to the Carrington hut where we tried to dry out our socks a little, and had a hot lunch. We had traveled about 7 kilometers so far, and were wet all the way. We didn't want to stay at Carrington for another night, because we could see the river starting to rise. We headed out over-land to get to another hut that was a scant 8 kilometers away.

We got there right as it was getting dark. The "easy" river crossings of the day before were now twice as hard, swift, and deep as they had been only 24 hours before. The trail, when we found it, was knee-deep in mud, and extremely difficult to navigate. And when we got to the Anti-Crow hut, the wood was wet, so our heating fire was very small. The temperature had dropped to about 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

The next morning dawned wet, cold, and dreary. Not only was it still raining, but the wind had picked up. We could see the white-water rapids actually being picked up by the wind and whipped into a horizontal rain! At one point, the winds nearly knocked me off my feet. (I estimated the wind gusts at over 50 miles per hour!) We decided to abandon the river-bed and search for the very slightly used "trail" up on the mountain side. This meant that we would have to go overland to the opposite side of the river and the start of the tramp. It would add a few more kilometers to our trip, but we should avoid a LOT of the river crossings. It should only take us about four hours to reach the road.

Six hours later, we emerged. Wet, cold, hungry, tired, wet, exhausted, hungry, wet, shivering, and excited. It was a GREAT trip! I got to use ALL of my wilderness skills and judgments on this tramp. Had the weather not turned so bad, it would have been a very nice trip, but the added adversities made it an extremely fun and challenging trip!

What happened after that? I suggest you read the next entry!

The Adventure Begins!