9th February
41.3km
Careys Hut 2708.4km Roadside camp 2749.7km
The sky showed off hues of pink and gray. I was first to wake and first to start hiking on the flat and easy 4wd trail. I slept so well last night, if there were any mice in the hut they didn’t seem to be interested in my food or the bags the other hikers had lying on the floor.
After 10km I took a toilet break at a campground and really wanted a second coffee but the ninja sandflies appeared from nowhere and attacked me. Usually strong wind is enough to blow them away but not today. Today they wanted my blood. I’ve mentioned sandflies on numerous occasions during this hike. And yes they are much worse than I’m making out. They really make an amazing day in the great outdoors downright miserable. Sorry New Zealand, maybe you should add sandflies to the list of animals you are trying to exterminate. It should be easy to do. Just list them as an exotic species that blew across the Tasman from Australia and poison the little buggers. Please.
I followed the dirt road for the next 20km as the wind picked up to near gale force. This kept the sandflies away and allowed me to simply make some miles through the rolling farmland. I put on my headphones, listened to music and let my mind wander. I started to think crazy thoughts. The speed record, or fastest know time for the Te Araroa trail is about 74 days, self supported. Which means thru hiking the same way I do, without the aid of others to cook meals, pace runners, cars at trailheads with food and water etc. I’m less than a week from finishing so maybe I’ll finish in 116 days or so. I’ve taken 13 rest days and I cruised through the north island at a leisurely pace. The south island is much harder and slower but I’ll finish it in around 48 days. If I lightened my gear to freaky ultra light levels, planned my resupply and transits between the islands and had some luck with the weather I know I could come close to that sort of pace. It’s a relaxed 40km per day average. The crazy thoughts one can have when thru hiking. Or are they crazy. Of course they are, I’m no athlete.
10am photo below
With all my daydreaming finished I set up camp near a stream on the side of the road. The next hut was 20km away, that would have made a 60km day. Too far for me, I’m not breaking any records today. Besides I’m feeling rather tired at the moment.
Distance to The Bluff 247km
Next – Day 110 – Windy Roadwalk
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You may hate the sandflies but they love you!! Seriously, they are hands down the worst thing about this country – almost makes you appreciate those gale force winds and icy morning frosts!
I hope you are having an amazing well-deserved rest and planning your return in 2020 to break the speed record (not crazy at all and I will totally drive you in a Sth Island resupply package)
Yes, exterminate the sandflies I say. The fkt is just ab idea, the mind thinks in strange ways when we hike, but who knows.
Am feeling your sandfly bites vicariously. Hang in there mate!
Just remember your managing a LOT better than I would.
Don’t come hiking in New Zealand until the cold frosts kill the buggers, you would not like it. They are much worse than the PCT, in fact the PCT is nothing in comparison.
This crazy things you sometimes think… I didn´t know the speedrecord is only 74 days… Who was it? I was going quite a relaxed speed and did 88 days. I was thinking of doing a yoyo sometimes when hiking, but had already planned an Australia trip with a friend of mine.
Not sure who it was, but like most people they thought they did a fast time but did nothing to verify it. GPX tracks, photos of hut log books, time stamps and gps on photos etc. So it will not be accepted, so as it stands there is no self supported verified fkt for the TA. The FKT for supported is something like 55 days. Could be a project for you?
I’m with you Brad – they are worse than the mosquitoes. They become legendary in ways that mossies rarely do. On the up side, it’s said that we owe much of what is left of the original pristine forests and landscapes in general on the South Island’s West Coast to the marauding sandfly, otherwise the fat cats would have carved them up a long time ago. Small mercies!
True, you have lost so much of your natural landscape. Not much old growth forest left, it’s called progress by some people, sad by others.
Those sandflies have really tortured you.
I seem to find them more annoying than mosquitoes, not sure why.
Those sandflies are bitey. The bites take forever to go away.
Sometimes they do. I’ve had a couple of occasions where I scratched the bites and they became infected. At least there is no malaria or other nasty viruses from them