Wellington, Nelson and the Wangapeka track

During the last almost two weeks a lot happened. Though I'll start at the beginning.
After national park I went on a stray bus again to head to Wellington.
On our way we saw some crazy things and did some as well. We drove past a giant carrot that made a town very famous (really why a giant carrot?!?), and after that to a town that was known for the rubber boot throwing. We went to the official arena where a couple of world championships have taken place and tried some ourselves. I thought it was weird as in Estonia I learned a different technique and someone from Sweden learned a different one as well, still it was hilarious to see.
In Wellington I had a couple of things to do, buy a plb (a personal locator beacon, which would save me in the end) do my groceries and go to the hobbit. This all had to be done in one afternoon. Actually I arrived at 12:45 am at my hostel very tired. Unfortunately I did not have the nicest of room mates. Three guys from the army, that liked shouting, farting and burbing and two slutty girls.
At around 2 am they came back from the strip club all drunk and all and continuing the party through the night, which really made my day.
Luckily I only had half a day left with them because I went to Nelson, apparently the most liveable city in New Zealand.
Via the ferry we saw the Marlborough sounds, which were amazing and I arrived at my hostel, one that had hot brownies and icecream every evening at 8:00. Apart from that I didn't do much apart from preparing my trip.
Eventually, on the 30th of December, I started my tramping experience. The weather apart from this day was supposed to be nice so I was really looking forward to it. Although because of the rain all the walking paths had turned into rivers as well, for that reason I'll call paths rivers for the remainder of this blog, real rivers I'll call them by their names.
The first day was mostly just walking on flat rivers and not much climbing, it was quite easy to do and was done quite early. I didn't meet anyone on the track and not in the hut as well. I was really alone for the first time in my life. In the Belltown Manunui hut I spent my time dancing, making a fire, reading and dancing again (dancing like no one is there). In the morning my gear, except boots, were dry and decided to walk again. This day is supposed to be the hardest of the entire track, especially because the rivers were very steep and had to cross some nasty creeks without a bridge, it where the kind of creeks that you would canyoning in with a rope, and silly me just crossed it. Y jumping from stone to stone with a 13 kg backpack on my shoulders in order to keep my boots as dry as possible, madness actually.
Luckily the big rivers, such as the little wanganui, which is not little at all, had bridges. After two hours of walking I had to climb 700 m to reach the little wanganui saddle. At this point the rivers became so steep that I was saying to myself that this walk is the most stupid thing I've ever done in my life and that I should turn back, which I did not. Luckily I arrived the top and went straight on to the decent as it was to cold and windy and I was too wet to resist that.
The decent was even more treacherous, 400 m down in 700 m,
which means an average angle of 30 degrees, but believe me some parts were much steeper. After being exhausted and cold to the bone I saw my hut and it had smoke from the chimney. When I got in 3 English people had started a fire and I could rest a little. This day apparently took me only 5,5 hours instead of 6,5, no wonder why i was exhausted. Luckily I had my moms homeopathic first aid kit with me, so I could make some things against muscle ache and bruises and the next day it was over.
On the third day I decided to do two tracks at once, the weather was not improving and I did not want to spent another night in the rain.
Today I had to walk 20 km instead of 10 and also had to climb 500 m. It was a tough walk but I made it. The last part I walked with a family and for the first time I was not alone when walking.
This hut (stone hut) was small and quite full, 8 people to be exact.

This is a side note to what happened that night. Some people know that my dreams may become very lively and that I start doing crazy things. This time I was throwing things as my pillow and socks across the hut and luckily when I had my cellphone in my hand I awoke. I decided to clean it up and to go make a pee, however the toilet is 100 m away and it was pouring, so I thought I would do it from the edge of the veranda. I was walking barefoot to the edge and to check how far I still had to walk I turned on my cellphone for some dim light. When I did that I noticed a kiwi less than 50 cm away from me, and without the light I would've tripped over him as he didn't notice me at first. I actually was joking about that happening to me to quite some people and I had a big smile on my face when I though about that.

Next morning we (the family and I) decided to walk two tracks again. They had their mother/wife waiting for them at the end and I wanted to get out of the rain. The track was quite easy as it was mostly descending. We walked quite fast and had a break at kings hut in the middle. We talked to quite a couple of people that had walked around a big slip and some that walked through it and when we arrived there we decided to walk through. However stones as big as cars came falling down, one nearly missing Simon (father), after which we decided to walk around it. The rain of the past 4 days made it very active again and it was very dangerous. To walk around it we had to climb the mountain at a place where a previous slip occurred. The ground was very unstable and it actually was nuts that we did this, however we heard that many people had done this as well so we continued. Luckily we reached places where were trees, which meant solid ground.
We still continued to climb however at some point we decided that it was nuts what we were doing and that we had to activate our plb's.
We thought we would be rescued right away but even after 5 hours no helicopter had come to aid us. It was getting dark and we used my outer tent as a waterproof roof as it was still raining and my emergency blanket we placed on the ground to lose less warmth to the ground. With 3 sleeping bags around us we tried to sleep. I think the two girls slept some, but Simon and I not at all. We all were so cold and we were spooning to keep the warmth in. When it became light I saw some blue patches of sky and I knew the helicopter was coming any minute now. At around 6 am I heard the helicopter and we packed our things such that we could be picked up right away.
We were winched up from the mountain and flown to the rescue centre at the end of the track. We found out that the ground rescue team had been trying to get to us till 11 pm however the slip was also to dangerous for them and they had to turn back.
After giving all my details to the rescue service they asked me if I wanted a flight back to Nelson. Which I gladly accepted. At the beginning of the track I only took care of how to get into the park and not how to get out. However I was worried at the end to not be possible to go to Nelson as there were no tourists going in or out of the park because of the rain. I guess this all happened for a reason and the helicopter flight to Nelson was included in the plan as well. For the first time in 4 days I had some good views of New Zealand and Kahurangi national park and with a smile on my face I sucked those views all in.

Most of you may know that I always wanted some real off grid experiences and I guess that this is as close to it as it will ever be. Somehow I was relaxed the entire time and accepted everything that came on my path. I still think that even the night was a great experience and I will never forget that.
If somehow the rescue team is reading this, I want to thank you all for taking some huge risks to safe us and I am very thankful for that.

Now I will go to Abel Tasman and will enjoy the beaches there in a less stressful way than walking.