Te Araroa (day 63) - Martha Saddle to Breast Hill / mile 1600

Sunday, 21st of January 2024.

Grindy day, it reminded me of hiking Tararua Range in North Island. Trail was constantly going up and down like an endurance run and the last climb was just pure ridiculousness.

Early morning start as per usual, I finished the climb onto Martha Saddle and begun descending towards Top Timaru Hut. Trail was quite easy to start with, running along Timaru River on 4wd track. I got to the hut at 9am, one Nobo hiker was still here, she told me that next section is a bit of a head scratcher. People tent to walk it along the river but after few days of rain it wasn't possible, flood track was the only option. Top Timaru had one of the more picturesque long drop toilets on the entire TA so I had to take a picture before I left.

Problem with the flood tracks running along the rivers was that they rarely made much sense. They ran way up then tumbling back to the river, cross it to the other side, cross it back after 50 metres, ran along the river for a while, go over a boulder, cross the river etc. It was a chaos and it drained your energy like there's no tomorrow. This one was going (still) along muddy and silty Timaru River but it has gotten bigger by now. It took me five hours to reach the other side of this obstacle course, I got lost twice (no visible markers, path carries on) and had to scramble my way back to it in a quite dodgy fashion. Got few bumps and scratches from those unplanned detours as well.

Once the trail finally left the river there was another big and steep climb to do towards the Stody's Hut. Over 1.6k feet up in just over a mile distance, a lot of loose scree along the trail, no switchbacks. I almost forgot this side of TA, but it was what made this nutty trail so memorable. Te Araroa could go from a road walk into scrambling on tree roots and almost vertical bouldering within minutes.

Luckily it got easier from here. I was really tired at that point and was thinking about staying at Stody's Hut but the trail got much more civilised. It was a slow and steady ascent along the 4wd road towards Breast Hill. I walked for another two hours and found a very pretty campsite hidden among the tussocks not far away from the top. It was flat, grassy and fairly well protected from the wind. I decided to stay here, another TA hiker I met in this area decided to push towards the next hut. I didn't understand why people had this strong urge to stay in tiny, dark, rodent ridden and overcrowded places unless of course the weather was bad. Staying out in the wild, surrounded by mountains seemed so much better to me. Perhaps I was missing something.

I set up the tent, ate some noodles with tuna and went to sleep. Night was silent, warm and filled with stars.