Goat Pass

Deception River was the first section I hiked with Logan four years ago. Back then, it was the most exciting day for me on our journey north. This time I had the exact same feelings. The river is a sea of huge rocks with water pouring between them. I love climbing up this and jumping from one to the other. There is a trail running right along the edge of the river, but who wants to trade fun for easy ground.

I guess finding my way up without getting my feet wet puts a smile on my face that not even the Joker can beat. Once at the top, I was almost sad that the fun was over.

At Goats Pass Hut, it took me a while to realize that Logan and I had stayed here once before almost exactly four years ago. I first had to take a few steps around the hut to jog my memory, but then it clicked and the stream of what I already knew just came crashing down on me. You know that feeling when you’re exploring a new city and at some point you check that you’ve been to a place before and suddenly everything makes sense and the city comes together as a cohesive whole. That’s what it had felt like.

On the way down, on the other side of the pass, I had several more moments like this where past encounters came back to me.

Since Connor and I were too lazy to follow the trail that kept going up and down, we made our way down into the riverbed once again for some more fun rocky terrain. This time it turned out to be a bit more challenging. Our legs regularly got waist-deep wet, to the point where we had to waterproof our valuables to swim through the river at a constriction.

Another time we went down a cliff so steeply that it was like an acrobatic feat to land on our feet at the bottom. Connor, who has not quite marginally shorter legs, was helped by me leaning against the rock and helping him down.

What I experienced that day made me want to go canyoning. In Queenstown I will get to the bottom of it. No pun intended.

The water rolls past me, I keep a lookout for my first target. A dry tip sticks out of the water, like the supposed iceberg in the ocean. Others line up consecutively one after the other. I seize my chance and hollow out to jump, landing on the bale. One by one I take the stones as they present themselves to me. There is not much time to think, who thinks, loses. It’s all about action, aiming and executing. Adrenalin makes me focus even more unerringly, the boulders get bigger the higher I climb, sometimes hardly surmountable.

Another way has to be found. I dare myself more and more each time; further away and higher up. Catlike I stick to vertical rocks. I pull myself up with the last of my strength, only to be immediately on the lookout for my next victim. The goal is not to get wet feet, to stay on top and to arrive at the top of the saddle without using the trail.

Some rocks I have to climb, put into practice what I learned while bouldering. Missteps would be punished more and more severely; I make no mistakes, I feel invincible. At some point, Connor and I would have to surrender, succumb to a waterfall into unknown realms.

We climb a rock for the last time, which should bring us back to the level of the actual path. Little did we know how difficult it will be in the undergrowth to get on the right track. Finally done, we head towards our destination with light footing.

Dutch

Today we arrived at Hamilton Hut, the cabin where I first played Dutch pretty much four years ago. A milestone in my, and many of my friends, pastime to this day.

Game rules

In the game, each player is dealt four cards face down in front of them. The object of the game is to have as few points as possible in front of you as quickly as possible. At the beginning of the game, each player is allowed to look at two of the cards in front of him and memorize them. Now the players take turns to draw a card from the draw or discard pile, look at it and then either swap it with one of their own cards or discard it. If someone has a card with the same value as the discarded card, you may also discard your card. This way you can get rid of cards and thus points.

There are a few special cards. When these are discarded, their function is triggered. Jack: Two cards on the table, either from yourself or the other players, are swapped with each other. This is used to confuse, or if you have memorized what the others have, to acquire lower cards. Queen: You may look at a card that is in play.

The values of the cards are from ace equal to 1 to black kings equal to 13 points. Red kings are worth zero.

The player who thinks he has the fewest points after his turn can say Dutch, thus ringing in the last round for all other players. If the player who said Dutch actually has the fewest points after his turn, he gets 10 minus points. If he didn’t make it, he gets the points of his cards and one more card in the next round. All others count the values of their cards as points. The person who defeated the Dutch announcer gets 3 minus points himself. Whoever has the fewest points wins.

Forgotten

I hadn’t remembered how pleasant the trail is up to Hamilton Hut. Four years ago we just made it to Lagoon Sattle in one day. This time we walked all the way off the road and called it a short day. Funny how time-space relationships can shift in a few years. The first climb from the parking lot, where a friendly brother and sister dropped us off, was the only real challenge on this already late day that had started with a good cup of coffee.

We strolled up quite leisurely, enjoying the view over the Bealey River, which we had swum and hiked through the day before. One last look before we made our way down the other side of Lagoon Sattle through the woods into the valley. Along the way, we ran into this family and their two kids (ages 5 and 8). The last time I had seen them was weeks ago just before the Tararuas. The four of them are making really good progress.

The next two days I had only partly done before. At that time Logan and I let us drive further in and then went along a different route to a lake for a swim. So a lot of these two days were completely new to me.

But even the part I had walked before didn’t seem to leave much of an impression on me that I could remember.

The Pinnacles, which were specially marked on the map, were completely foreign to me. I didn’t miss the chance to climb this natural spectacle and examine it more closely.

Mountains that have risen around us, with their veil of clouds, give the impression of reaching into infinity. As it turned out the next day, they were considerably duller than they made us believe. Already after getting up they presented themselves to us in their cloud-scarf wrapped splendor.

At the end of the third day, we were treated to home-baked cookies and a cold drink by a friendly woman before a shuttle picked us up in the nearest town, Methven. Here we were able to feast our way through the menu as if we were in a land of milk and honey from various cafes and bars. According to my memory, there was a much smaller selection here four years ago, but maybe I’m just mistaken. The memory plays sometimes quite beautiful tricks.

Distance traveled

Official website of Te Araroa