Wednesday 22nd March: Weather 15°C to 20°C misty rain easing to just overcast
James McKay Hut to Heaphy Hut: 20.5k walk
Accommodation: Heaphy Hut
Suspension Bridge over Heathy River
Highlight was reaching the Heaphy Hut located on a magnificent clearing near the mouth of the Heathy River on the West Coast of New Zealand.
We awake to misty drizzly rain - but not too cold at 15°C. Breakfast is cup of tea and muesli before packing and leaving at 9am dressed in all our wet weather gear - rain jacket, rain pants, pack cover and poncho. It’s an say well graded track down hill across running streams. We make good time, walking at 4.5k and hour and arrive at the Lewis Hut at 11.30am along with 10 others who have the same idea as us - good spot for a coffee break. It’s a pretty setting beside the Heathy River so there’s the usual dose of sandflies so we make it lunch of rice crackers and peanut paste - just in case there’s no better spot further on along the track.
We leave at 12pm with 2 others - an Irish couple Hiliary and Ian, whom we’d seen the night before at the James McKay Hut. They are doing the same as us, stopping at the Karamea Baches, same bus to Nelson, and staying at the same YHA in Nelson. It’s a quick 8.5k walk along the River to the coast and we arrive at the Heathy Hut at 2pm. It’s a fantastic setting at the junction of the Heathy River and coast and the beach and river mouth are strewn with driftwood, courtesy of the raging currents up the west coast of New Zealand that are notoriously dangerous and had already claimed the life of a women a few days before.
Heathy River
Loads of Wekas
Hilary and Jan chatting
Mouth of Heathy Track
Heathy Hut overlooking river mouth
Piles of driftwood line river mouth
Beautiful sunset over Heathy River
There’s about 18 people at the Heathy Hut, mostly from the previous hut, James McKay. There’s no one there who has walked the reverse direction from Karma. A few go for a cold swim in a secluded part of the river - not me - we have a nice warm splash dash from our portable kitchen sink filled with warm water, whilst standing in the toilets, the water conveniently passing through the spaced floor boards to the ground below. Down on the coast, it’s much warmer than the previous 2 nights up in the mountains - about 20°C inside the hut. Dinner same as same as with the last of our red wine. Warden Graham is at Heathy Hut for 3 nights and then walks up to the James McKay hut for 3 nights then has 8 days off. Not much fun if you ask me but apparently there’s always queue’s of people wanting to work at the DOC huts.