Day 115 - a mouse, a saddle and a proper camp in the wild

Royal hut —-> Wild camp beyond Camp Stream hut 24km

I had evaded any sort of mice incident until now. I’d heard them for sure, even felt them run over my sleeping bag in the night, but otherwise I was fairly unscathed. This morning, I made my porridge and cup of tea as per my normal morning routine but when I went to drink the tea, the water leaked out all over me. Teeny little gnaw marks were visible in the bottom and all around the top of my orange silicone mug. Apparently it’s not just food that needs to be hung from the ceiling at night…!

The mice had left droppings all over the kitchen bench and nibbled at a few of the other hikers’ things too - it really soured my mood. I’d had the same breakfast since day one and now I couldn’t have my morning tea, I went into a bit of a grump.

John did his best to make me see the funny side and we left Royal hut towards this morning’s destination - Stag Saddle.

At 1925m above sea level, Stag Saddle is the highest point on Te Araroa. It felt like a big milestone, I had been really looking forward to today. Within 27 seconds of leaving the hut however my mood soured further as we immediately had to cross a river. With no way to rock hop, I started the day with soaking icy shoes, I’m starting to question why I even bother trying to dry my shoes overnight.

The climb up to the saddle, despite an increase of 600m was fairly gentle, up through the tussock in between the mountains.

The last stretch was a bit more of a slog, especially as the ice had thawed leaving giant bogs to splash through, but compared to the peaks I’d done in previous weeks, this was a walk in the park.

We reached the top around 9.30am and were amazed to see clouds covering the view beyond. We’d expected to see Lake Tekapo in the distance but instead it was blanketed. 1925m felt pretty good. It was all down hill from here right?!

My mood lifted significantly, (the mouse incident now seemed quite hilarious) and we set off towards Tekapo. The forecasted wind hadn’t materialised, so we decided to take the ridge route to the next hut rather than descending into the valley.

Wow. This might just well be the most beautiful track I’d been on so far. The mountains of Mount Cook National Park standing proudly on our right, we followed the ridgeline for a couple of hours as the clouds sat dreamily in the valley below.

Eventually we got low enough that Lake Tekapo was visible underneath the layer of cloud floof.

By 12.30pm we had spotted Camp Stream hut and descended into the valley for a spot of lunch.

I had no desire to spend another afternoon relaxing at a hut. We’d had a fairly cruisey last few days so I was keen to get some more km under my belt. I asked John if he’d be up for carrying on further this afternoon despite there being no other huts until Tekapo. Neither of us had wild camped* on the trail so far and I was keen, even if a bit nervous to try it.

He was game, so we picked out a spot along the trail to aim for (the Far Out app here coming in very handy for noting where other hikers had previously wild camped), and an hour later we were back out on the trail following the tussock through the valley.

The drizzle started not longer after and we paced it down the valley, spurred on by thoughts of warm sleeping bags and hot chocolate.

We found the camping spot after about 9km, right next to a little stream overlooking the mountain range. It couldn’t have been more beautiful. We rushed to set our tents up before the real rain started.

I was cosy in my sleeping bag by 4pm, and in lieu of a functioning mug, was drinking a cup of tea straight from my Jetboil.

I was very glad to have John camping alongside me. Although in reality it’s not really much different than camping at a hut, it felt much more exposed. I’m still not sure whether wild camping is really legal or not, but there wasn’t going to be anyone to tell us off up here - I felt like we were a gazillion miles from anywhere. I loved it.

*wild camp - setting up tent in the bush, outside of an official campground or hut.