Day 136 - the mother of all trail magic
Martin’s hut —-> Riverton 32km
Last night had been so warm that the holes in the walls of the hut provided much needed ventilation - not since the north island had I been so toasty at night. So after a wonderous nights sleep, with barely enough light to see, we set off.
The sadness I felt to have spent my last night in a NZ hut was soon replaced with annoyance and pain as John, Leon and I slipped and bashed our way through our second day in the Longwoods forest. The novelty of yesterday’s mud had well and truely worn off and I was very ready to get back to a normal, non-muddy trail.
I smashed my leg on a log and let the mud wipe the blood off, there wasn’t a inch of me that would be clean enough to tend to a wound. We’d be at the ocean this afternoon - I’ll let the salt heal me then.
THE MUD JUST KEPT ON GOING.
My mood was souring by the minute when we spotted Turnbulls hut ahead. This was officially the last hut we would pass on the trail. It was then I remembered Steph had told me what to expect outside Turnbulls - trail magic!
An incredible selfless soul @aworldinorange, wanting to give some something back to the TA community, had hiked in two eskies of treats. Cans of fizzy pop, beer, fruit and choccies! I couldn’t think of carrying an extra packet of porridge for anyone else - this guy was a saint.
I wish I could describe how over the moon we were to find these eskys. When your “fresh” diet consists of four cherry tomatoes a day, eating two mandarins makes you feel like superwoman.
John and Leon had downed two beers by 9.15am.
Rejuvenated (and maybe a little bit drunk) we ploughed on into the mud ahead - it somehow was no longer an issue and we raced along for a couple of hours until we came out onto the hard gravel of Roundhill road car park.
We could now smell the ocean. Thinking lunch by the beach devoid of mud would be nicer than lunch in a car park covered in mud, we sprinted down the side of the road for 5km to reach Colac Bay.
John, not used to walking at such speeds for a few days fell into a pile by the side of the road.
I didn’t realised how much I’d missed the ocean until I saw it up close. I held back tears of joy as I ran onto the beach and splashed around in the surprisingly warm water.
After a good twenty minutes of scrubbing and failing to remove the final remnants of burnt in mud, we perched up on a nearby picnic bench and rejoiced in completing the Longwoods and having reached the ocean after two months on the South Island.
The afternoon took us back along the beach, and a stunningly beautiful beach at that. Colac Bay was undeveloped; the usual mega mansions usually found on a beach this beautiful no where to be seen.
The trail then took us along the Tihaka track, up and along the cliffs of the south coast, down onto pebbly beaches and through farmers fields, all the while staring out right across the ocean.
It was clear that this part of the coast often took one hell of a beating - the trees were almost sideways.
The final challenge for the day was a 150m climb up to a look out point before descending into the coastal village of Riverton. For some reason, I had in my head that this was the last climb of the TA… I decided to power up it, in fact I pretty much ran. Leon was keeping pace with me until he dropped back. I only realised why when he joined me at the lookout point 10 minutes later with a bloody tissue stuffed up his nose. Had the rapid acceleration of altitude had caused a nose bleed?! Who knows, but Leon did know that I’d (completely unnecessarily) powered it up the SECOND last hill of the TA.
The view from the top was nothing special - a slightly higher view of Stewart Island than we’d had for most of the day.
I said goodbye to John and Leon and sprinted off down the hill towards Riverton. Josh had arrived in Invercargill this afternoon and I had planned to meet him there. I really needed to get to the main town centre before the sun got too low in the sky so I wouldn’t be hitching in the dark…
I was stood outside the local bottleo by 5pm and got a ride with the first person to come past - they were a friendly bunch down here! A lovely local engineer took the scenic route back home so he could drop me at the door of the Invercargill pub where Josh was ready and waiting, with non other than the wonderful Steph!
Seeing Steph made it all hit home that it was coming to an end. We had some bevs, ate a mountain of food and then went to bed (in a real bed) feeling every emotion under the sun - tomorrow would be my penultimate day on trail.
