This view is at the top of the climb out of the gorge and up the steep 2.5hr climb to Stody’s Hut. It is the view of what is ahead not my days walk and good to see how steep this gorge was. It amazes me how the first navigators forged a path through these shifting mountains and tight river spaces. Following the river there was little sky to be seen and felt weird hiking the sidling’s in the low river banks and crossing it or not.
The way through was not obvious due to the terrain yet quite well marked. The many tracks through a deep valley downstream proved others found it just as challenging in the tight gorge by these wrong-way tracks. There were many wrong-way tracks, made by earlier hikers, to follow and I did. It helped following a river but should I be high on a sidling or down on the river bed and what side of the river should I be walking? The many paths were forged due to the Timaru River running fast or/and high. Cairns depended on the river flow at any time and not every cairn suited the current flow.
Nick and Ginny found me having a break early in the day and so we then had three brains to solve each problem for the dozens of river crossings. We walked together the rest of the day; I was really glad of their company. The 14km took me 10 hours, the same for the 4 ladies who arrived late last night, for Nick 9hrs.
I always say it is the time on the hike that matters not the distance travelled. 14km may only take 3 hrs but not in this exciting terrain.
An old colleague is in S&R up north. She has had to rescue people who apply their times walking straight forward tracks to tracks that are described as routes and are just as you described (although up north usually mud and tree roots galore).
@christinav Northland S+R is awesome. The terrain up there is different but the same as the rest of the country, fragile. Our Great Walks are maintained to a high level and easy to walk yet when I walked Waikaremoana excess water eroded some steps making them unsafe. Yes roots and mud as well as tiredness create problems.
