Day 1 (Robyn’s PoV)

It started raining as we drove through Glenorchy, but this would not deter our spirits. We had travelled a long way for this tramp after all! We met some very inspiring TA¹ walkers at the carpark shelter - one of them (I didn’t get his name) had thought 10 years ago he would never walk again following a car accident. We should never take our legs for granted!

We set off under suddenly blue skies - the Caples River was crystal clear in the sunlight. We passed several hunters on our way to Mid Caples Hut. They told us to listen out for the calling deer in the valley; we heard them very distantly. Amongst the towering valley walls, we walked through marsh and crossed a steep and narrow gorge.

The rain came in as we arrived at the hut, where fellow hut-stayers had already lit the fire. After dinner we played a couple of rounds of Toepen, a Dutch card game that Martijn taught us, with a Canadian traveller called Achilles.

Day 2 (Martijn’s PoV)

It had rained all night, which created a cozy atmosphere inside the hut. We had a hearty breakfast in the form of oats with nuts, after which we set off for the second part of our tramp. Fortunately the rain that had been pattering on the roof the entire night had ceased, for now.

Our packs were noticeably lighter, after having eaten the heaviest of our three meals the night before. Despite that, today would be the hardest day, being the longest at 23 km, and also including a climb up the McKellar Saddle. We were told by some fellow trampers coming the other way that it would be very cold up there. However, once we had made our way up, the main thing we noticed was the stunning view, and the cold winds weren’t as harsh as we were led to believe.

At about three quarters of the distance, I was confronted with the fact that my body is not used to walking so many kilometers. As Ainslie noted in his journal, I apparently said that “Every part of my body hurt”.

Luckily we made it to the hut just fine. To prevent myself from falling asleep, I took it upon myself to prepare this evening’s meal, which consisted of fusilli pasta, mixed with spaghetti broken into smaller bits (I’m sorry, Italians).

Day 3 (Ainslie’s PoV)

We were again awoken by the natural light entering through the windows around 7am, meaning we’d slept for almost 11 hours! For this morning’s oatmeal, Martijn took the indulgent step of adding a few squares of Whittaker’s Dark Ghana chocolate. Before setting off, we bid farewell to our Canadian friend Achilles, who was setting off for the Great Divide.

We enjoyed beautiful sunshine for most of the morning, before the weather took a turn for the worse. Hint: rainbows.

Menacingly-dark clouds chased us through Greenstone valley for most of the day, eventually enveloping us in their rain just a couple hours before we arrived at Greenstone Hut.

A lovely couple from Sydney welcomed us and kindly let us know we’d come with the worst of the rain. Yet again, the time estimates for the trail wronged us, as we clocked in at 6.5 hours, right at the upper end of the estimate, despite tramping at what we thought a perfectly reasonable pace.

I was designated chef, and Robyn helped me prepare a feast of couscous, chickpeas, lentils, red pepper, tomatoes, olives, and mozzarella - arguably the best meal of the trip as we also topped it with cashews. Tonight we found Martijn a fellow Dutch friend: Jeroen. He came to New Zealand to complete the TA, but after deciding that certain parts are boring enough to skip, he’s embarked on several self-described “side-quests.” He was delighted to play Toepen with us and kept us up rather late for a hut night - 9pm!

Day 4 (Robyn’s PoV)

As the dawn clouds lifted in the valley, we could see that the snow level had dropped a few hundred meters overnight and now covered the higher trees. It felt like we went into the trip in the tail end of summer, and came out in winter! Everyone commented on the change as they stumbled out of the bunk rooms.

I spoke with more TA walkers that had arrived after we had gone to bed last night. One of them, Akta Reka, had first completed the TA 4 years ago. He had been making a documentary for his mother, who is no longer able to travel in her old age. On one of the last days of his first TA, he got wiped out crossing a river and lost all of his footage and camera equipment. He must have been gutted. He said that he (understandably) hasn’t stopped thinking about it since and so decided to walk and film the whole thing again. He will take more care crossing rivers this time - look out for his documentary!

Walking back to the carpark was sunny but cold, and very nostalgic of wintery school mornings. We discussed how we slightly dreaded the return to civilisation, and wondered what news we would have missed over the four days. Although it was a pain in the arse to get to, I would thoroughly recommend Greenstone and Caples!

I also made a short film which you can enjoy below: