The Heaphy Track was my last of the 9 great walks - which I left til the end, precisely because it was so long (just under 80kms). I wanted to do it in 5days unfortunately a big group had nabbed the middle hut so I was stuck with cramming it into 4 days (one of which at 24kms was a killer) even though the tracks were quite gradual up and down and not too bad. The sandflies were ghastly though.
I was really happy to start even though I was going by myself but I made friends with a group of three on the ride there who said they would look out for me. I had a few people keeping an eye on me which made me feel quite good. I also had a cute little fantail that followed me and twittered to me non stop at one point.
Day one was several hours uphill but it wasn't steep so it was doable. Also I met a couple of campers, a guy from Ireland and a girl from Spain (not together) they were both really lovely and we had some nice chats on the way.
Some awesome views on Day One:
On the second day we got to see the giant snails that this part of NZ is known for, but alas I did not manage to see the elusive albino giant snail that they were talking about at the DOC office for the Heaphy Track.
I also got to see the massive shoe tree I had heard about - though why anyone would want to carry their shoes all the way there just to dump them on the second day I don't know. And I also got to see my first whio (blue duck) in the river just before this tiny old fashioned hut we passed.
Day 3 was when we descended from up in the heights down to the river and followed along to where it reached the sea at Heaphy Hut which was by far the best (and newest) hut on the track. Sunset there was something spectacular, despite all the biting bugs.
And finally Day 4 where I got to leave the hut early to walk along the beach and try to make sure I avoided high tide (apparently some people did die a long time ago when they tried to cross at high tide and got sucked out to sea - the waves here are quite dangerous though the lagoon near the Heaphy hut was a great place to swim) of course the problem with that was I arrived really early and had to wait hours for our van, which had broken down somewhere and they had to send us out another one. It was really good to stop in civilisation (Karamea) to eat on our way back to Nelson. A few more assorted pics from the trip, including a lovely walking group from Melbourne who I shared the van home with - they were crack up characters.
The next day it was crazy misty and we were hoping it would clear so we could see the views of Mt Luxmore and such. Unfortunately it hadn't cleared by 12 so we headed off anyway, walking through the mist. At the foot of Mt Luxmore we met some israeli guys who were super funny & we ended up chatting to for a while that day. There were a couple of shelters on the way which was good, then the track descended steeply downhill for ages and then we ended up going over a hill where we could've taken a shortcut (if we'd known about it - gutted) then we found a lookout which was totally worth the detour. Our late start meant we didn't get to the hut til 8pm just as the rangers talk was starting - he was funny, and got the last choice of beds, then had a quick dinner and went to see the Iris Burns Falls (which we couldn't see at all, since it was pitch black). I did see gloworms on the way back to the hut though, only a tiny handful but still cool. We heard a kiwi too, though we never saw one.
On our last day we met a nice belgium boy who was quite homesick so I got talking to him in french (though Naomi talked to him more than I did, I was quite tired from our previous late night). It was a bit uphill but mostly down, gradually to the last hut. We didn't stay there the night though, we walked about an hour and a half past there to our bus pickup point back into Te Anau, and skipped the last days walk for the track. It was brilliant, even though the mist enshrouded mountain was a little bit of a disappointment.
