Te Araroa: A Hiker Christmas
23.12.2019 Day 64 (19km)
After yesterday, I wasn’t sure I could handle another hike. Yet, like I’ve done multiple times over the past couple months, I got up, put on my rotten, damp clothes, and started walking. I was going to be meeting up with my friend Will to hike part of the Around the Mountain track. He had already completed most of it, but had to miss a section due to weather. Initially, I had planned to do the entire circuit, but the forecast had turned on me. There was something quite unappealing about hiking alone, on Christmas Day, in the pouring rain.
The track was well maintained out of Whakapapa Village. Then the TA turned off towards National Park and I headed into a bog. Fortunately, there were ample dry patches, allowing me to pass relatively unscathed with mud. In the end it didn’t matter. My next obstacle was a river that came up over my knees.
By this point in the TA I’ve grown accustomed to wet feet. It’s just a fact of life that your feet will be wet almost every single day. Rather than waste time changing my shoes, I headed up stream to a stretch where the currents were calmer and plodded through the river, shoes and all. In hindsight, that was the smartest thing I did all day because there were five or six more river crossings later on.
I paused at a hut to chat with a French girl I had met the previous day and a Slovakian Buddhist monk visiting from Wellington. Then I pushed on, and I pushed hard.
Down into one valley, down, down, down we go. Then up again, up, up, I ascend. Those were the little jingles I hummed to myself as I navigated the rocky slopes and tunnels of clay. Waterfalls hung from the face of Mt Ruapehu, like tinsel on a Christmas tree. I rarely stopped, but when I did it was to bask in the beauty of my surroundings. The open, endless valleys should have made me feel small and insignificant, but instead they filled me with a wholeness that only comes with being a part of something greater than ourselves.
Will arrived at Mangaturuturu Hut about an hour after me and we spent the evening catching up, talking about the trail, and laughing at each other.
Day’s Highlights: The waterfalls
24.12.2019 Day 65 (5km)
We were hiking up the side of a waterfall, a bloody waterfall. I’ve had pretty standard Christmas Eves, either working at a ski resort or spending time with family and celebrating the Czech way. I have NEVER spent a Christmas hiking up a waterfall.
It was a short day, only 5km of uphill from the hut to Ohakune Rd. Although the sun was overbearing and hot at the start, by the time we arrived at the road clouds and a cool mist had claimed the day.
We had the luck of the holidays on our side, getting a quick hitch down the mountain and into Ohakune where we had lunch. I had been hoping to go back to Captain Kune’s, a fish and chip takeaway, since I ate there in July. Yet, because the TA didn’t pass through Ohakune, it didn’t seem possible. Thank goodness for detours!
Will and I parted ways after our next hitch out to a crossroads. He headed north to Taupo and I went south to Palmerston North (Palmy). It took less than two minutes to get a lift. Hayley and I chatted the entire hour and a half. She was a river guide, which I found fascinating. We mostly talked about outdoor stuff and told river and hiking stories, and before I knew it I was closing the car door and thanking her for her kindness.
Carolyn was already in Palmy when I arrived, so we met up and went on the hunt for some “civilian clothes.” This was mainly because I didn’t feel like sitting around in my rain gear while I did laundry. I wanted to feel like a human again, especially for Christmas. Of course, my idea of non-hiker casual wear ended up being a hoodie and some yoga tights…go figure.
Day’s Highlights: Hiking up a waterfall…cause when does that ever happen in normal life?
25.12.2019 Day 66 (0km)
It was well past dark when Carolyn and I walked back to our hostel with bellies close to bursting from the feast at Dom and Nadia’s hotel. The streets were completely dead as we chatted animatedly about Christmas, the trail, and rest days. We had just crossed a street when a woman came running around the corner, loudly repeating, “Can I walk with yous?”
We were both taken off guard by her sudden appearance, and encouraged her to walk with us as she stated that someone, a man, was following her and she believed he meant to harm her.
She had a crazed look in her eyes which led us to believe she might have been under the influence of something. Her maroon sweater was tattered in several places, and she had to hold her sweatpants up with one hand, while the other supported a large floral purse. My senses were heightened and my pace quickened a bit as we continued along the dark streets.
There was no way of knowing if she was the target or if we were and she was meant to be a decoy. Carolyn continued to ask her questions to get a better grasp of the situation. I shot a nervous glance behind us. Someone was lurking in a doorway near the street corner, staring in our direction. He ducked between the shop entryways, remaining in the shadows. Then the next time I looked back, he was gone.
A white truck sped by, Carolyn was certain that she had seen it before, though she didn’t tell me till later. The woman followed us all the way to our hostel, rejecting our suggestions to wait for her ride at the police station, about a block away. She insisted that the police had done experiments on her the last time she was there. We suggested she kept to the lit streets and she seemed a little depressed when we told her she could not come into the hostel with us.
Once we were safely inside, Carolyn and I checked all the doors were secure and debriefed. We were both a bit shaken from the entire encounter. Part of me was convinced I had imagined the man in the darkness, an illusion of fear. Carolyn confirmed that she had seen him as well. Her concern had been that an ambush was waiting for us; when the white truck went by she thought we were done for. Regardless, one thing was certain, the women had a shadow following her.
It was an unsettling way to end a perfectly good Christmas.
Day’s Highlights: Lovely chats, delicious food, excellent company
26.12.2019 Day 67 & 27.12.2019 Day 68 (0km)
I came to the TA expecting to discover a deeper connection with myself. In a way, this has occurred, though it’s resulted in me feeling lost and broken. That’s not necessarily a “bad” place to be. It’s a position of learning and growth, but it’s also uncomfortable and painful. I have been stripped raw and now have to face my demons, the ones I’ve managed to pretend don’t exist.
I’ve tried to ease the pain with rest days, but sometimes I feel like being in a city surrounded by people and with access to social media, I am more lost than out in nature. I don’t know what I need to do to heal. All I know is that it is necessary, and it will take time.
Although I’ve seriously considered dropping out of the TA, I think that being alone, with my demons is really the only way to overcome them. Like the mountains on the TA, I need to face them head on, to keep pushing when I’m short of breath. There will be tears and moments of weakness, but that’s part of the natural cycle.
I hope that this next section of the hike is able to reaffirm why I am here and provide me with the motivation I need to keep pushing onward.
