TA Day 37

TA Day 37: Friday 24 January 2025

Mingha River / Edwards River - East of Morrison Footbridge

Getting up this morning was difficult, we just wanted to hug each other in the tent instead.

But finally we got going. Today was going to be a long and tough day, and we had to finish before the rain that might come...

This morning we made a bet about how many SOBOs we would see. Lukas guessed 13, Kim 18 and Jan 15.

The first couple we met recognised us! We didn't recognise them, but apparently they knew Agnieszka (Zebra) and had been told from her that they would meet us. It was a lovely meeting and nice to talk to them. We were surprised to hear that this was their second time hiking the TA! And SOBO both times, wow.

Some time later, Jan and Lukas found a nice swimming pool and went in. Kim continued towards the breakfast spot for today. But then she lost the trail, and when she ended up down by the water and couldn't see any markers, she thought that maybe back where the trail parted in two, the trail continued upwards... So she started climbing a steep scree and almost at the top, realised that she couldn't go any further... Lukas then arrived and told her the trail was down by the water, but Kim hadn't seen any markers! Lukas continued and Kim got very upset with the whole thing. While trying to go down she realised that it was much harder to go down than go up, and the ground beneath her started to move when she did. She was afraid she would slip down the scree and hurt herself really, really bad, and that would be the end of the hike. So she started crying in sheer panic. But she finally managed to go down, digging her fingernails deep into the soil to try to hold on to something.

All the way to the breakfast spot outside of the Mingha Bivouac, Kim cried. Lukas tried to calm her down, and after some time, she did. While we had breakfast some cute birds, south island robins, jumped around close by, and we also had a lot of runners passing us. Probably out training for a trail running race that will take place soon.

After breakfast we continued up towards Goat Pass. It was a bit tough but still felt quite good. On the way we met Maria, another Swede who is hiking the Te Araroa SOBO. Kim has been writing with her for sometime so it was fun to finally meet!

After the pass we only had a short break at Goat Pass Hut before continuing. The trail between Goat Pass Hut and Upper Deception Hut is extremely slow. It's 2,5 km and took us about 2 hours. Calling it a trail is almost a crime. We crawled down huge boulders and zig-zagged across Deception River, which was quite deep because of how the boulders were placed, making pools everywhere. Must be extra difficult in rain. We were glad we managed to pass this before the rain that was supposed to come.

After passing Upper Deception Hut and having some dinner, we kept going. We wanted to reach Morrison Bridge if possible, or at least walk as far as we could today. Lukas really wanted to be as efficient as possible and even went ahead to the hut to make dinner. Then he wanted Kim to hurry up and finish her tasks faster and instead of a nice break, we started arguing. Kim felt sad because she felt that Lukas was stressing all the time, and she felt like she could never rest. And the trail was tough, so we kept arguing. Staying positive was difficult and after more than an hour of arguing Lukas tried to stop it. He asked Kim what he could do to make her feel loved, and after some time of talking it started to feel a bit better. And after a snack break it felt even better.

The trail was also getting better and we realised that we could maybe make it to the bridge anyway.

Seeing the end of the valley felt so good, and we pushed on the last few kms.

Remember the bet about how many people we would see? We saw 18 SOBOs (and pleeenty of runners), and one backpack with no person around, and then - so many tents... In all the spots were we had thought about pitching our tents, there were already some others. In the end we counted as many as 10 tents!

So we ended up walking a but further, just camping at the edge of private land. We know this is bad, but the sun had gone down and we were out of options with all the other tent spots being taken. And we were so tired when we arrived that we forgot to take a picture of our tent spot as we always do...

Today's:

Distance: 26.16 km

Ascent: 555 m

Descent: 925 m

Tent nights: 27/37

Weather: Cloudy morning, then sunny, cloudy, sunny and cloudy again