Day 30 – Dingle Burn to Ahuriri Base Hut

This morning a chopper flew by as I was packing up. This isn’t so unusual, Kiwis are mad for helicopters. They’re used to provide farmhands easy access to high country stations, and for hiking, skiing, or hunting expeditions. This was the first whirlybird I’d seen on the Dingle, though, and surprisingly close to the ground.

Shortly after I started walking, I crested a hill to find the helicopter and three people walking down to the river. It was a fishing tour, flown up from a nearby lodge.  Moments ago I’d felt like I was in this very remote place, difficult to access, and now I found I was less than an hour from civilization. No matter, I wouldn’t be seeing much of them, though they told me they’d dropped another group of three further up.

The second group was just having lunch when I met them. They had a really cool piece of kit, a Kelly kettle. This is a kettle with a chimney passing through it, which sits atop a can with a large gap in one side. You fill the bottom with dry grass and feed it with twigs once it’s lit. The flame and smoke, passing directly through the center of the kettle, boil the water quite fast.  My hangdog thru-hiker expression must be less subtle than I thought, because the guide said unprompted “I’d offer you lunch, mate, but I’ve only got enough for three.”

I reached Top Dingle Hut, where the river peters out into a glorious circle of mountains, and the trail veers right to cross a saddle into the Ahuriri River valley. By evening I was at Ahuriri Base Hut, a nice little structure accessible by dirt road. I spent the night chatting with my two hut-mates: an Australian fly-fisherman on a two-week holiday, and an adventurous Englishwoman visiting Kiwi relatives she’d never met before, and generally seeing the country.

The Australian, Layton, is in IT but used to run a catering company. I watched, amazed, as he deep-fried some chips to go with a fresh-cooked steak. He offered me a bowl of chips, and they were perfect.