HEAPHY Track - 82 Km 4 days

Heaphy Track - In: Jan 22 at 10.40 a.m. - OUT : Jan 25 at 10.55 a.m.

A wonderful  trek in the middle of the nature. It was a bit complicate to organize the transportation. Originally at the hostel they told me there was a company that for 110 NZ$ took me at the first entrance (Brown Hut) and then picked me up at Kohaihai 3 days later. It’s right but it works ONLY if they get the right number of people. In my case they didn’t . Originally I booked a bus ticket from Westport to Nelson (where I lived my stuff during my trekking but it didn’t work cause from Kohaiahi (end of the Heaphy track) to Westport there are 3 hours and there is no regular transportation to and from there! No problem to get the entrance (Brown Hut) from Nelson but difficult to come back. If you have time you can try to hitch but I didn’t have time and it was not good to risk. I was lucky cause during my trek I met some guys that hired a bus to Nelson so I shared the cost with them (95 NZ$)

I was faster then the others and anyway I booked 3 huts –  I started the hike at 10.40 a.m. The first I got was Gouland Downs (no gas facilities there) at about  4.10 p.m.. All the other stopped at the first one, 7 Km before…for this reason I was the only one at that hut. I didn’t know that I could drink the water so I had a heavy backpack (21 Kg) cause I carried all the water with me! It was great to have a hut just for me after 23 Km trekking. It was like at home :o)

The second day I started at 8 a.m. and after 4 hours 10 minutes I got the Mckay Hut were I met some persons.  The third day a girl (Erika from Canada) wanted to join me for the hike

Yep :o) It was a nice hike…we got Heaphy Hut, next to the beach. This hut is the last one and for tis reason the most crowd.  It’s in a great  location - IMPORTANT: take a good Mosquito Repelent against the sandflies...I hadn't and I am still suffering!!!

This trek was really beautiful and I was lucky cause I didn’t get any rain!! 80 Km hiking about 1.600 mt ascent (gentle ascent) the path is very good. My avg walking speed was 4.9 Km/h