TA Day 30
TA Day 30: Friday 17 January 2025
Bush Stream Track / South of Brabazon Downs - Bush Stream Carpark + Potts River Carpark - South of Dogs Hill
Shuttle day! We got ready and Barry joined us to the carpark, where we would be picked up by the shuttle. Rose and Jan joined us there a bit later, but were going to stay behind as they would try to cross the Rangitata River later.
Rose just needed to wait for Caleb, as she had promised him to do.
Before leaving, we asked if anyone needed anything from town, like a little snack or soda or something. Jan gave us a long shopping list with 6 items, and an amount of food that would likely last us at least 2 days 😆
So we were wondering what he would've done if we weren't going to town, how would he have survived?
During our 1,5 hour resupply in Geraldine we just had time to make a burger stop at ReBurgers (they were so good! We talked about them the whole afternoon), take out cash, resupply both for us, and for Jan. And we still had some time left before the shuttle would take us to the other side of the Rangitata River.
We had so much food, and while waiting for our ride, and also during the ride, me and Lukas finished a whole 1 liter of ice cream on our own 😋
When we got off the shuttle, Jan was not there, waiting for his food as he'd said he would... It had also been roughly 5 hours since we saw them. Strange, the river crossing wasn't supposed to take 5 hours.
We were a bit worried that something had happened to him and the others. We heard that there had already been one helicopter rescue from this river this season.
Today was supposedly a really easy day to cross the river, but we were told by the locals that the flow of the river is measured further down, so from the point where you cross the river there is a "delay" of 5 hours, and even if the weather is good here, the weather can be bad a long distance away and that way the river can rise, very quickly.
This is one reason why we booked the shuttle already in Lake Tekapo (so about 3,5 days earlier). Better to be on the safe side we thought, when you don't know what the weather will be like that far away and when your life could depend on it. There is no mobile reception down at the carpark so without a shuttle there wouldn't have been so many other options than crossing the river.
We left Jan's food as we had promised - in a bag hanging on the sign by the carpark, with his name on it, and got going anyway, and after a little while we had some mobile reception. We managed to get in contact with Caleb and he confirmed that he, Rose, Ryuya, Jan and another hiker called Sam, had made it safely across the river. Apparently Caleb, Sam and Ryuya had come running down in the morning, and missed the shuttle with just 15 minutes! And now they were stuck in Mt Potts Lodge, because that place was quite pleasant, and had food 🙂
The trail was pretty good, and we made a lot of progress. At the first little saddle that we passed, we decided to stop for a cake break. Barry had been carrying a cake, and since the others weren't going to catch up, then why not eat it? We had such a good time and the cake was really tasty.
After the cake we were happy and full of energy. I think we suddenly walked faster than ever for being on the trail, and soon we had reached our camp spot for today. It had magical surroundings and no one was around, just us. We felt so happy, and so alive.
Here, Lukas did some more repairs on his shoes and Kim made dinner, and then it was time to crawl to bed! Lukas fell asleep hugging Kim ❤️
Today's:
Distance: 18.12 km
Ascent: 491 m
Descent: 305 m
Tent nights: 21/30
Weather: Sunny and some clouds in the afternoon and evening
