Day 3: Carnage

Started out at the Edelweiss lodge. Awesome fry up for brekkie. Full of optimism. Packed up the van and the 4×4 with our different aliquots of gear – climb, raft and then bike (somewhat confusing and lots of Q from team). Drove a couple of hours to the Ohau lodge where we dropped the gear we didn’t need for the mountaineering. Jumped into a Land Rover and did some cross country driving to get to the trail head.

Elka and Axel are our NZ mountain guides. Felt super safe with 4 guides for the 6 of us (foreshadowing). Started the hike in woods, beautiful. Then over the river one by one on the suspension bridge. Then, why bother with a bridge? We were introduced to river crossing. The river is glacier fed, cold and fast and deep in some sections. It’s traveled using a group in a consistent ‘row’ to help stabilize each other against the pull of the current. Suneet took a big step to get around a giant rock and had a real dip but we didn’t let go. And then step by step, we were safely across. Took off the boots poured out the water. Wrung out the socks and laughed a lot. And then in 1 km we did it again…..

From there the trail got a bit sketchy…and from there it got a bit dodgy….

There have been avalanches and rock slides which impacted the trail. So we spent many km on the rocky shore, scrambling and in and out of the water. Then a bit of bushwacking Dave twisted his knee, I did a flip (managed not to take my head out – I do a good turtle). And the trail kept coming at us. More rock. More river. More bushwacking. More ascent.

Barry stayed with Dave who was a super trooper, Axel ran up (are you f’g kidding me) to drop his back and ran down again to help. Tim (superhero) did the hot dog thing and carried his pack on back and Dave’s pack on front, until Axel arrived.

We pushed on and arrived at the Brodrick hut at 8 pm (where I said this feels like the f’g Ritz Carlton). It’s about 10×12 feet. Bunks along two walls, a small table, cast iron pot bellied stove and a larger table for the camp stoves. Boiled water, tea, dinner in a bag (pesto), then team in a bag (sleeping).

Dave rolled in at 1130 pm, pitch dark, headlights showing the way, with Barry and Axel keeping him safe. Dave wins the perseverance of the year award. 

What a day.