Great Walk I - Kehu/Heaphy Track - November/December 2020
In our quest to do all the great walks, we started with one of the best, and just a ferry ride, drive and shuttle from home. COVID-19 had reduced international traffic to a standstill. This meant we could get a couple of bunk spaces in all the huts, a few months in advance, rather than the usual year or so.
The epic 78km of Heaphy track crosses a mountain pass, south of Collingwood, over to the West Coast, north of Karamea. The equivalent drive on available road between these two points is nearly 450 kms. The eponymous William Heaphy, an explorer of Te Wai Pounamu, was guided by a local named Kehu along the coastal part; but the entire track takes on his name. Heaphy himself is said to have been reluctant to lend his or anyone else's name to things, deepening the irony that the whole of this extensive track is named after him.
It had poured rain the night before our first day of tramping, in Takaka, and the whole morning of our departure - our shuttle's window wipers on full tilt. During our van ride I sat next to a lovely couple from Auckland; and we ended up finishing at the same time 5 days later. Thankfully the rain lightened up as we started walking from Brown Hut, at noon, up up up the 17 km or so to Perry Saddle Hut. The bush canopy was lovely - we enjoyed hearing and seeing kereru, tui, kaka, kakaruai (South Island robin) and further up even heard kea.
The hut was awesome, and the fire was lit - I hung my wet socks right away. It was very crowded by those using the tent site, so we were glad to see a warden checking who was supposed to be there. Pat and I are night owls, so we were the only ones to hear the male and female kiwi calling at 1030pm that night.
After a mere 2-3 hours of walking on Day 2, we arrived at our bed for the night, at Gouland Downs Hut. We were greeted by a weka and her 4 chicks - so cute, so cheeky! This was a couple of hours shy of the standard stop at Saxon Hut - but that was all booked out. Gouland Downs Hut sleeps 8. We set about exploring the downs, looking for takahe. We saw signs of grass being eaten and pooped out the other end, but no takahe. The beech forest enclosed amazing limestone caves - while just a small patch of forest we got a bit lost in there, and had to rely on our MapToaster app to give our GPS position and navigate our way out. By the time we emerged, Andy and Fiona had joined us, having mountain biked from Kohaihai. They made a wee blaze in the big fireplace. We enjoyed chatting with them. In the big huts it's easy to chat with others - but it's equally easy to choose not to. So we appreciated the compulsive aspect - also there wasn't the light to read. We would bump into them again at Karamea, waiting for our flight to leave; and then again at the Takaka fair. Small region.
Day 3 was about 17kms. We spotted whio in the river near the end of the Downs. We caught up with a good number of people at Saxon hut, where takahe had been hanging around all night and day. We were very pleased to arrive at the palatial Mackay Hut, with flushing toilets! I hadn't believed the reports. Our tired legs and dirty bodies appreciated the cold dip in the stream nearby. An outcrop 10 mins above the hut gave us a lovely view of the last of the sun's rays reflected from the clouds. We also appreciated a return to a hut (really a lodge) with solar powered lights - after the standard facilities at Gouland Downs the night before.
Day 4 was our longest in terms of distance, nearly 21km. But a lot of it was downhill. A titi pounamu came to visit us at one point. Along the Heaphy river, we heard the sound of chicks. We pushed through the shrubbery to the river bank to find the source. We nearly got hit by shag guano plopping milkily into the river. Although we didn't see the shag chicks the nesting adults were a sight. Arriving at yet another palace, the Heaphy Hut, again with flushing toilets, felt like a massive achievement. We added another couple of kms by tramping down to the sea and swimming in the waves. The weather was perfect so we opted to eat outside. There were a few sandflies around, for sure, enough that I couldn't remain in shorts, but it wasn't as bad as I'd heard. Pat eschewed the insect repellant. Keeping moving, stamping and slapping were good tricks.
We shared a bunk room with a group of half a dozen, and given our 5am start the next day left our gear outside of the room, to reduce packing noise disturbance. At the Kohaihai Bluff lookout we encountered this group again, on bikes, 3 of whom turned out to be people I vaguely recognised from Victoria University of Wellington. Small country! We set out at about 6am, conscious of a 1pm rendezvous with the shuttle to the airport. Day 5 was really stunning - we encountered many day walkers and bikers coming in the opposite direction. It's true that if you only have a short time, that nikau and rata coastline is endlessly spectacular and well worth your day.
As I was walking Day 4 towards the Heaphy river mouth, and Day 5 southwards along the coast, I thought a lot about Kehu, the Māori guide along the coast: his awareness of the tides, the uses of the various rākau, the routes that he took over bluffs, and if and how the trail was marked. So many untold stories about Māori overland voyaging. I enjoyed thinking of it as Kehu's stomping ground, and Kehu's track. But perhaps, like Heaphy, Kehu would have turned up his nose at having the route named after him. Would they have felt differently about it being known as the Kehu-Heaphy track? Or perhaps naming after persons is barking up the wrong tree? Kahurangi - treasure in the skies - is an apt description of what we encountered on this awe-inspiring, epic, yet accessible track.
