Traveling in roughly a straight line, the TA followed the Hurunui to its source, climbed over Harper Pass, and followed the Taramakau River towards its confluence with the Ōtira River.
I was surprised at how warm it was outside this morning. If I’d realized it was as nice as it was, I might have convinced myself to start hiking earlier than I did today. I did start by 7:30, which was a pretty good start time for me.
From the hut, the trail quickly entered forest, and was a generally very nice trail. The most exciting part of the trail this morning was when it crossed Cameron Stream on a walk wire, a three-wire “bridge”. The walkwire didn’t seem all that necessary, but I suppose Cameron Stream must have the potential to be a ranging torrent, and somebody thought an emergency bridge here would be a good idea.
I wasn’t initially going to cross the bridge, but it was not very long, maybe 20 meters at the very most. And after only hiking for half an hour, the prospect of being able to keep my feet dry enticed me to give it a try.
I took the bridge quite slowly, not wanting to lose my balance. Obviously, this took way longer to cross than if I’d just walked across through the stream. But I successfully made it across, and kept my feet dry in the process.
After another half hour, I reached Cameron Hut, a small, run-down shelter. An easy hour from Hurunui No. 3 through nice forest trail (and with no entries in its log book from last night), I was kicking myself for not pushing on to Cameron Hut last night.
With rain still forecast for tomorrow, what I wanted to do was make it to the Morrison Footbrdge today (which would be a very long day, at 37 km). Having dinner at No. 3 and then going the hour to Cameron would have reduced today’s hike by an hour (and 4 km), making that more feasible.
After Camerons Hut, the trail followed meadow and forest as it continued to parallel the Hurunui River and climb upstream. This was somewhat rougher and slower than the stretch between No. 3 and Camerons, but it wasn’t too bad. A northbounder I passed suggested that it ought to be possible to make it all the way to the Morrison Footbridge today.
I stopped for a break at the Harpers Pass Bivy, a tiny two-bunk box not far below Harpers Pass. This was the smallest hut I’ve seen on the trail, even smaller than Dracophyllum Hut in the Tararua Range. While I was there, four northbounders passed, as did Adrian and Marine.
Leaving the hut, the trail entered forest for the remainder of the climb to Harpers Pass, with a few more crossings of the Hurunui River, now substantially smaller than the river that required a bridge yesterday.
I passed three more northbounders on my way to Harpers Pass, and one more a bit further below. They indicated it took them 4.5 hours from Kiwi Hut, which, given the time, was my first suggestion that I’d need to pick up the pace a bit if I wanted to keep to my goal.
The view from Harpers Pass was nice, but marked the beginning of a steep descent down the mountain into the Taramakau River’s valley.
From above, the Taramakau looked reasonable enough. After the steep descent, the trail then crossed the river on a swingbridge, and then followed landslide debris on the river’s left bank. This was poorly marked. There were occasional cairns, which were nigh-impossible to see against the background of more rock, but there was really only one way to go: downstream.
Eventually, the trail briefly re-entered the forest, then came back out to follow along a rocky path. Tired and a little overdue for a break, I sprained my left ankle half a kilometer before I reached Locke Stream Hut, where I’d been planning on stopping. That last half-kilometer took nearly 20 minutes, as I slowly hobbled down the mostly-nonexistent trail.
At the hut, I briefly chatted with two northbound section hikers, and Adrian and Marine, before shuffling off to one of the bunks to lay down for a bit. Adrian gave me a painkiller, which helped a bit.
Locke Stream Hut, the fourth of the original trails on the Harper Pass route, was so remote that it was constructed from trees on-site, hand-hewn to form one of the larger huts on the TA, with a large common area flanked with two bunk rooms.
About an hour later, when Adrian and Marine were getting ready to go, they offered to carry some of my weight to Kiwi Hut, a further 8 km from Locke Stream Hut. I grudgingly gave them my food bags, which still contained a substantial amount of food, since I’d packed an extra two days on account of the upcoming rain.
I also got an updated weather forecast, which indicated that the rain would start sometime between 10 am and noon tomorrow. Given my injury, I decided that Kiwi Hut would be as far as I’d go today, and as long as I left early enough, I should be able to make it to the Morrison Footbridge tomorrow before any substantial rain. The last thing I wanted was to get stuck at Kiwi Hut for two days, since it’s a small hut, and there’s quite a few river crossings between Kiwi Hut and the bridge. (To say nothing of the trail beyond, up the Deception River, which has no shortage of crossings and is not advised after heavy rain.)
From Locke Stream Hut, the trail was largely a nice, steady walk through a meadow. There were a bunch of river crossings that kept my feet wet, and a slower section where the trail went through a boggy area jammed between the Taramakau River and the side of the mountain, but in general, I made reasonable progress despite my slower than usual pace.
I passed four more northbounders, bringing the total for the day up to 12. Another southbounder passed me as well. Macro, wearing a CDT hat (2023), also had hiked the AT in 2016 (southbound) and the PCT in 2018, though we never met in either of those years. (He went on to camp somewhere beyond Kiwi Hut).
Kiwi Hut, recently renovated, sat in a rather messy clearing of cut trees (and lots of firewood). This provided an excellent view across the Taramakau valley. Adrian and Marine were already there; not long after I arrived, three more northbounders and a southbounder also arrived, though the sobo only stopped for dinner and left to camp further ahead. (I’d previously met him when I’d arrived at Lakehead Hut, half a day out of St Arnaud.)
Since my boots were wet from all the river crossing today, and muddy from a short muddy patch on the side trail from the TA to the hut, worsened by deep tire tracks, I took my boots and socks off outside the hut. This gave the sandflies there ample time to attack, especially since it took me a bit to get my left boot off without further aggravating my ankle.
Based on an off-hand comment by Adrian, I became concerned that there might be a rush on accommodations in Arthurs Pass tomorrow due to the weather. I used my InReach to ask CareFree to book me a place for two nights in town. After a while (because nearly everything was fully booked), she came back with the Arthurs Pass Lodge, a no-frills hut run by an alpine club, at a rather agreeable price. I was quite happy to take that; the alternative was the free campground, and I really did not want to be stuck in a tent in heavy rain.