The highlight of our visit in Southland was the Humpridge track. As it is nearly a 60km track (3 days), we decided to split. Amit walked the whole track, and we – Kids and I - walked just part of it. We started the trail together until the point where Amit turned to his trail and we walked to the other direction of the track, straight to the second Hut. Amit was going to meet us there on the second night.
Due to the cold weather in the previous days the trail was all puddles and mud (That was in our part - Amit didn’t know that in addition to the mud and puddles, he was going to walk in nearly one meter snow…)
At the first few hours we spent a lot of time trying to cross the puddles safely without getting too wet. Realizing that it is pointless we then changed to walk straight in… It didn’t matter as we were all wet anyway. It was way too tough than I expected and I couldn’t believe that the kids were so cooperative. We carried very heavy bags, were exhausted and had no idea when we’d get to the Hut but we kept our good spirit. I was soooooo proud of my kids. Eventually we walked from 8:30 in the morning till 6:30 in the evening – 17km!!! It was such a relief to reach the Hut. We were the only guests there. Mandy, the lodge manager was waiting for us. After the basic Hut in the Routeburn, the kids called this Hut “A 5 star Hut”…We were too tired to do anything but to prepare dinner for ourselves and go to sleep.
The next morning was a sunny day. We went down to the beach with Mandy and Max, her 10 years old boy guest. We spent there few hours, watching the Hectors dolphins (the smallest and rarest type) playing in the sea, and exploring the area.
Amit was supposed to arrive later on. As it was his birthday we planned to surprise him. We sneaked balloons and decorations into our bags and then decorated the room. We were so excited when he arrived – we missed him a lot as if we didn’t see him for ages! He had a very tiring walk (especially due to the deep snow) and was very exhausted.
The next day we were supposed to walk back. The weather forecast was pretty scary – very rainy and strong winds. An Australian couple who was walking the track with Amit decided to quit… They were walking about 14 hours each section of the track (on the night before they had to be rescued by the lodge manager as they didn’t arrive until 9pm). The weather forecast didn’t improve the situation, thus they decided to take a helicopter in the last part. Kids and I were offered to take the helicopter with them and we agreed… That was, of course, awesome!!!
No doubt that the Humpridge track was one of our strongest adventures in NZ.
Due to the cold weather in the previous days the trail was all puddles and mud (That was in our part - Amit didn’t know that in addition to the mud and puddles, he was going to walk in nearly one meter snow…)
At the first few hours we spent a lot of time trying to cross the puddles safely without getting too wet. Realizing that it is pointless we then changed to walk straight in… It didn’t matter as we were all wet anyway. It was way too tough than I expected and I couldn’t believe that the kids were so cooperative. We carried very heavy bags, were exhausted and had no idea when we’d get to the Hut but we kept our good spirit. I was soooooo proud of my kids. Eventually we walked from 8:30 in the morning till 6:30 in the evening – 17km!!! It was such a relief to reach the Hut. We were the only guests there. Mandy, the lodge manager was waiting for us. After the basic Hut in the Routeburn, the kids called this Hut “A 5 star Hut”…We were too tired to do anything but to prepare dinner for ourselves and go to sleep.
The next morning was a sunny day. We went down to the beach with Mandy and Max, her 10 years old boy guest. We spent there few hours, watching the Hectors dolphins (the smallest and rarest type) playing in the sea, and exploring the area.
Amit was supposed to arrive later on. As it was his birthday we planned to surprise him. We sneaked balloons and decorations into our bags and then decorated the room. We were so excited when he arrived – we missed him a lot as if we didn’t see him for ages! He had a very tiring walk (especially due to the deep snow) and was very exhausted.
The next day we were supposed to walk back. The weather forecast was pretty scary – very rainy and strong winds. An Australian couple who was walking the track with Amit decided to quit… They were walking about 14 hours each section of the track (on the night before they had to be rescued by the lodge manager as they didn’t arrive until 9pm). The weather forecast didn’t improve the situation, thus they decided to take a helicopter in the last part. Kids and I were offered to take the helicopter with them and we agreed… That was, of course, awesome!!!
No doubt that the Humpridge track was one of our strongest adventures in NZ.
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