Forget what I said yesterday - TODAY was my most difficult day so far.
None of our clothes from the night before had dried despite us hanging them over night - the clouds were so low all night things actually seemed to get colder and wetter instead. We knew the descent from Pirongia was going to be just as muddy as the ascent so putting on our only dry clothes would be a waste. We had to dress in the soaking wet kit from the day before and just hope we could warm ourselves up.
I was feeling quite hopeless and so frozen to the bone that I even cried trying to tie my shoe laces because my fingers were so cold! Luke put my gloves on my hands and zipped up my gaiters for me and we started our walk for the day.
Everything beyond the trees directly in front of us was white and the constant rain from the night before had made the mud even deeper and more slippery- luke was actually wading knee deep in parts! (I did my best to edge around the sides but took my fair share of plunges into muddy water too).
Our toes, despite being soaking wet inside our shoes, did soon warm up though. In the UK, climbing a mountain means to climb up to the peak/trig and then back down to the bottom- in New Zealand it means you climb up to the peak/trig and then on the way back down you climb five or six other little hills and mini mountains too. It took us three hours to climb 'down' altogether and I think at least 1.5 of those were spent scrambling up hill on slippery mud or using chains to pull ourselves up over rocks.
When we did finally reach the bottom, we stood in a stream (our shoes were already soaked rough anyway) and washed the mud from our legs and our clothes ready to start the rest of the day.
The next 17 or so km we were on road - the weather had held off just enough for our clothes to dry off, our bodies to warm up and our shoes to almost dry. But, of course, the track soon turned off of road and onto Omarama Scenic Reserve which was a beautiful walk but boggy and wet thanks to the rain starting up again - our clothes were once again wet and covered in sticky clay mud and remained that way until we had walked just over 32km and had had enough for the day. We passed the airstrip at the 881km mark and pitched our tents amongst the sheep just over the ridge of the hill overlooking forest and views of the hills beyond.
It absolutely chucked it down as soon as our tents were up- ours was still wet inside from being packed away wet two nights before so we had to sit on our towel as we tried to unpack our bags and cook our tea in the non-existent porch of our tent.
Funnily enough though, these moments inside the tent while the wind is going nuts outside and the rain can't get in are some of the best moments we have on this trip - with a whole bar of dairy milk and a hot chocolate to finish the day with!
No comments:
Post a Comment