Happy holiday humping
Kathy, the hut manager, suggested a reviving and refreshing beer before walking the scenic loop track above the Hut – sandstone tors and mountain tarns and 360 degree views of Stewart Island, the ocean and the Fiordland wilderness.
Kathy was fun and humorous, but also offered sensible advice and provided us with a wonderful three-course dinner, including wine.
On Day 2, after being entertained by keas at breakfast (the main event on both mornings being porridge), we traversed the undulating Hump Ridge and descended to an old logging tramway that once served the Port Craig sawmill.
We walked along the old tramway and over three viaducts, including across the Percy Burn
Viaduct (said to be the highest surviving wooden viaduct in the world), to historic Port Craig Village.
Here, Mandy was the lodge manager and again we were looked after admirably.
Having explored this pioneering timber village and seen once again Hector’s dolphins by the old wharf, on Day 3, we walked forest and beach sections (round Te Waewae Bay) back to Flat Creek, Track Burn, Bluecliffs Beach and the Rarakau Carpark, where our track transport was waiting to take us back to Tuatapere.
We were most fortunate with the weather – fine and calm on the first two days so that we could enjoy the views, and drizzle that turned to persistent rain on the third day; however, there was no wind, it wasn’t cold and the rain made the coastal forest look magnificent.
We spent another night at the Waiau Hotel. When one of our group went up to the bar to buy a round of drinks, a local made the comment, on the basis of his stiff legs and somewhat funny gait, that he must have been “humping”.
We had been looking forward to an interesting and different New Year’s Eve. However, we were so exhausted (but pleasantly so) that we were in bed by 8.30pm and not even the fireworks and the Tuatapere pipe band could wake us at midnight!
Tuatapere and the Hump Ridge also have much to offer the less energetic traveller.
There are one-day walk options, a viaduct walk, jet boating on the Wairaurahiri River to Lake Hauroko (New Zealand’s deepest lake) and a “Heli Hump”. Tuatapere also has several galleries and shops that sell local arts and crafts. And the Yesteryears Café and Museum is interesting and serves excellent coffee.