Day 55 – Lewis Pass to Boyle Flats Hut

I had an easy hitch back to the trail this morning, with a really interesting guy who sells agricultural equipment all over New Zealand.  Arrived at the southern trailhead of the St. James track, which is a loop touching the highway in two places.  There’s a facility here called the Boyle Outdoor Education Center, which evidently has beds for $25 and showers for $5.  If I had known about it, I probably would have had my package mailed here and saved myself a hitch.

The St. James is one of New Zealand’s Great Walks, a designation DoC gives to its most scenic and best maintained trails.  I did the Routeburn, another Great Walk, as a side trip, but it doesn’t connect up with Te Araroa at all.  This is the first one I’m doing as part of my official route, and I’ve been pretty excited about it.  The track did not disappoint – it was beautiful and clear walking all day.

I reached the Boyle Flats Hut by early afternoon and was trying to decide whether to head on to Rokeby Hut (which I had heard was “dreadful”), or camp, or stay here. The forecast was for a very cold night and Boyle Flats was rather nice, so I stuck around.  I was joined by a couple of older women from Motueka, one of them a DoC worker on holiday.  She seemed personally offended at some of the complaints in the hut book.  Often reading these books I find that somebody has made a complaint, and everybody else jumps on them for daring to criticize the wonderful huts and trails.  I’ve always thought this was a bit silly – the hut books are intended for feedback on a paid service, after all, and DoC must be fairly thick-skinned about it.  So I was surprised to see an actual DoC worker get annoyed by some perfectly valid complaints.

I learned some more from these ladies about the tramper who went missing recently.  They were at the Christopher Hut when a search and rescue helicopter stopped in to check the hut books.  His name was Ed Reinolds, he was an American about my age, and he hadn’t left any intentions.  When his parents last heard from him in February, he was planning to go over the Waiau Pass.

I was already a bit nervous about the Waiau crossing, as I read Eric Martinot’s blog post on it, which made it sound quite difficult and dangerous, and at 1870 meters, it is the highest point reached on the trail.  Hearing about this tramper who was so like me who may have disappeared on the crossing made me even more concerned, in a funny similarity-voodoo way.  The main way in which we differed, of course, was that I had left my intentions with Roxane so if things went off the rails, I would be found sooner.  I also knew that the weather was meant to be very good for the day I was planning to cross, which gave me confidence.

There was loads of cut wood at this hut, and though it was a bit of a challenge getting the fire started, once it was going, we had a nice warm night.