TA Day 48

TA Day 48: Tuesday 4 February 2025

St Arnaud - Maitland Creek / Motueka River

We decided yesterday that we will try our best not to stress today. We will take a half day and finish some tasks we didn't have time to finish up yesterday.

We ate the remaining pancakes, packed up and checked out at 10 am. Then we spent two hours on a patch of grass outside beside some benches. It was a nice day but the sun was hot 🥵

We started with some road walking, and deviated from the Te Araroa-trail by doing ~2 km longer road walking and then following the Red Hills Track up to Red Hills Hut. Apparently that's what the Te Araroa-trail did before too, but now they changed it to follow the ridge for longer.

After the road walk we sat down for a snack break at the start of the Red Hills Track. While we ate our sandwiches with hazelnut spread on, a man randomly came by and gave us two freshly baked muffins! Still warm and all! How he managed to bake them just there at the parking we have no idea but we were very thankful. And he was gone again just as quickly as he had appeared. But we were very thankful, they were so nice!

From here we followed a nice MTB-track, and then a 4WD-track. We took some geocaches along the way and just cruised upwards.

At the hut we met two ultra runners. They were waiting for a man that was currently out on the trail, trying to beat the current record of running the TA. Today was 21 days since he started from Cape Reinga... Crazy. He was running the whole Richmond Ranges in just one day too...

After another bread break, we kept going. Now the trail was more like what we were used to again...

The last 2,5 kms Lukas walked a bit faster so he could pitch the tent and finish everything before Kim caught up. Once Kim came, we went for a swim together, and when we did, the ultra runners ran past us. Maybe to meet up with their friend?

We went to bed, and had a freeze-dried meals and some cookies, and just before going to sleep, we saw the runners coming back. Or rather - 3 headlamps in the dark.

Today's:

Distance: 21.92 km

Ascent: 600 m

Descent: 619 m

Tent nights: 33/48

Weather: Cloudy and sunny, hot