Day 24: Hāwea to Pakituhi hut

Yesterday we'd found a car key on the cycleway between Albert Town and Hāwea. We'd let all the cyclists riding past know we had it and that we'd drop it to the hotel's reception if they found anyone looking for it. This morning Emma went to the dairy to grab some breakfast and some more spinach, as she'd put ours in her top pocket yesterday so it had withered. While there she overheard a lady coming in and asking the cashier if anyone had turned in a key. Emma explained what had happened and that we'd left it with the hotel. The lady insisted on buying our breakfast and was very grateful. She and her husband have been doing the Te Araroa in sections also, so she gave Emma her number and said to give her a call if there's anything more she can do to help.

After that, we had a quick 6 km walk around the Lake Hāwea's edge to arrive at the trailhead.

I'd packed 2 L of water that morning, but by the time we got to the trail head I was quite certain it was going to be insufficient. Luckily we met a couple of insane people (colloquially known as trail runners) at the start of the track. We got to talking and the guy had completed the Motatapu marathon, and the shorter variants several times. They were here to run up this hill. Insanity. Anyway, he offered me up some water which I gratefully accepted.

It was an absolutely grueling climb up to 1300 m from 350 m. A gain of 950 m over about 3.5 km, on a calm and sunny day... which made things very swampy. The hike was punishing, but the views out over Hāwea were spectacular.

On the way up we saw a few paragliders launching off, several other insane people, and one TA SOBO hiker. The plan was to push through to Stody's hut, but by the time we got to the top and we saw how greot Pakituhi hut was, we were ready to call it a short one.

Later that night some paragliders would arrive. It had grown too windy for them to successfully launch, and they'd had a failed attempt already. Not having any camping gear they'd have to hike down the hill after having slogged it up. Heartbreaking. One of them was friends with the first TA SOBO girls that we'd seen in Riverton. Small world.

Late in the night a Czech couple would arrive. Intending to see sunset from the saddle, and sunrise from breast hill (a short hike away). They were quite nice and offered to take our rubbish down the hill with them in the morning. Quite fortunate as we'd had halloumi salad for dinner, so had an avocado and a lemon corpse amount other things, which are quite heavy as far as rubbish goes to tow around for the week ahead. We never heard them get up at 4 am to go see the sunrise. They left quiet as a mouse.

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