St. James Walkway

Day 160 (December 5, 2018) - St. James Walkway, South Island, New Zealand

After we decided to come to New Zealand, we knew we had to go on some epic hikes while we were here. New Zealand is known as a great outdoor adventure destination, and we set to work months in advance trying to figure out the perfect hikes to do. New Zealand has a category of hikes called "Great Walks," which typically are the most popular hikes in New Zealand - and for good reason: they have the most outstanding scenery and the best facilities.


Unfortunately, this year New Zealand decided to test out a new pricing system for its most popular Great Walks, where foreigners effectively have to pay double the normal rate. This meant if we wanted to do one of the more famous hikes, like the Routeburn Track or the Kepler Track, we'd each have to pay $140 per night to stay in a hut. That's $280 per night to stay in a dorm room typically with at least a dozen other people. If we camped, we could save a little money and each pay $40 per night to stay in our own tent, but that's still pretty hefty consider these rates are per person and we'd be in a tent. So, we decided to find a hike that was well-rated, but wasn't a "Great Walk," so the pricing was way easier to stomach ($5/person/night to camp with our own tent).

We ultimately settled on the St. James Walkway, which was supposed to be a 5-day subalpine hike mostly through river valleys and beech forests that had great views of the snow-capped mountains. The hike was a loop, rather than an out-and-back, and the endpoint was 16 kilometers from the start. This meant we had to park our car on one end of the hike and figure out how to get to the other end. We decided to park at the endpoint and then make our way to the start.

We dropped our gear off at a campground about a 30 minute hike from the start of the trail, and then drove to the endpoint to park (about 16 km away - a 3.5 hour hike). Unfortunately, the day we arrived there was no bus running, and there nobody to give us a lift, so we did what many backpackers appear to do in New Zealand, and we hitchhiked. Neither of us had ever hitchhiked before, so it was a bit of a new experience, but we managed to snag the seventh car that came by. It turned out to be a New Zealander that was driving his newly-purchased used bus back to Nelson to turn it into a camper van. It was only about a 15 minute ride, but it saved us a couple hours of walking, so we were thankful.

While we had successfully completed a 9-day trek in Peru from Choquequirao to Machu Picchu, we had done this with a mule carrying all of our gear. On the St. James Walkway, we were the mules. We had a tent, our sleeping bags and mats, food for 7 days, cooking equipment, clothing, and toiletries. Within a few minutes of walking with all our gear on our back, our hip/butt muscles started screaming. We both felt it and asked each other whether we had made a big mistake...could we actually carry out gigantic backpacks for five days? We had done a lot of walking during our travels, including that 9-day hike, but we never hiked so long with so much gear on our backs. We knew it'd get easier with time, so we plunged onwards. While we never felt pain-free at any time during the hike, we did eventually get used to the weight, especially as we ate our way through our packs and they lightened up a bit.

Mark after putting on his pack for the first time, before the pain set in

The first hiking day was very nice. Much of the walk was through beech forest, and some portions had clear views of the surrounding snow-capped mountains. It was mostly sunny and there was no rain. We stopped at a hut and had our signature lunch: tortillas with peanut butter and nutella. Not the healthiest, but it certainly replenished our energy stores (and was quite tasty).

Hiking through the beech forest on day 1

Crossing a suspension bridge

Mark hiking through a valley

Us with a good view in the background

By mid-afternoon we had made it to the hut where we would spend the night, Ada Pass Hut. We camped next to the hut, which allowed us to use all the facilities (bathroom, kitchen sink, inside, etc.), and it cost one-third of the price of sleeping in the hut. We did get a little rain at night, and it was a little cold, but otherwise we had no issues. And the view was amazing.

Our campsite the first night of our hike

Mark making use of the hut's outdoor sink

The next morning we woke up quite early with the sun, had our standard breakfast of coffee and oatmeal, and then packed up the tent and were on our way. Much of the hike was alternating between beech forest and open valleys. The weather was partly cloudy, and it did rain for a little bit (we even broke out our rain pants for a bit), but overall the hike was pleasant. We saw more white-capped mountains and subalpine lakes with some ducks swimming around.

Mark in his favorite hat and rain pants (he actually hates that hat, and probably the rain pants too)

Panorama of one of our views on day 2

We arrived at our next hut, Christopher Hut, mid-afternoon and, after drying out our tent from the wet morning we had, we set it up next to the hut.

Our tent next to Christopher Hut

We thought we might have the hut (or at least its facilities) to ourselves, but around 6pm or so some other hikers showed up. These were a pair of New Zealanders named Linda and Pete that we ended up being on the same hiking route with for the rest of the St. James Walkway. They encouraged us to come stay in the hut with them, rather than stay outside, but we declined (especially since we did not have the right number of pre-purchased hut tickets to stay inside the huts...only enough to camp next to them). We went to bed soon after they arrived, as we were quite exhausted, so didn't talk with them much on the first day. 

The next morning we again had breakfast, packed up, and then set out on our hike about 30 minutes behind Linda and Pete. Depite them being quite a bit older than us, they were carrying a lot less gear (they were pros), and so they were far ahead of us the whole hike. It ended up raining quite a bit during the hike. Most of the day's hike was through river valleys with no shelter from the elements. We again saw snow-capped peaks as we were hiking, but there were more clouds than previous days, so the views weren't as good - but there were some good moments. 

We arrived at the next hut, Anne Hut, in the early afternoon. The good thing about Linda and Pete hiking ahead of us was that they would have a nice warm fire going in the hut by the time we showed up, as well as some hot water for a cup of tea. Anne Hut was in the middle of a giant grass field without any shelter from the elements, and it was extremely windy when we arrived. It was so windy, in fact, that we thought it would be unsafe to camp next to the hut. Our tent might have caved in under the force of the wind. Linda and Pete convinced us to stay the night inside, and we were glad we did. It was very cold out that night with a lot of rain, but we stayed warm and dry in the hut. While we only had enough tickets to camp, there were no wardens checking tickets, so we didn't get in trouble. Even if we met a warden, we were going to play up the safety card as the reason we stayed in the hut.

View of Anne Hut (see small spec in the distance)

The next morning it was still raining a bit, so we started off the day in our rain gear (jacket, pants, and poncho to cover our backpacks). We had to trudge through some pretty boggy areas. Mark's boots weren't waterproof anymore, so he would take on water at the slightest hint of wetness. Here's a nice video of Mark tiptoeing through the boggy areas.

Mark tiptoeing through the bog

Today was actually the worst day of our 5-day hike on the St. James Walkway. I dubbed it the most miserable hike I've ever been on. The rain was coming down when we left Anne Hut, and it didn't let up (except for a few minutes here and there) until we got to the next hut, Boyle Flat Hut. What made this day even worse was that it was the longest day of the five day hike: we had to hike 17 kms, which took about 8.5 hours. This whole time it was rainy, cold, and wet. There were portions of the walk where we had to hike through boggy areas that were overflowing with water. The rivers were bulging out of their banks (luckily we had no river fords). The trail leading up the pass we had to cross, and then leading back down the other side of the pass, turned into a creek flowing with water. Our boots were soaked just from the rain coming down, not from falling into the bogs or walking in creeks. So at some point, we just stopped avoiding the puddles and trudged straight through. It actually made the hike faster. When we finally got to Boyle Flat Hut, there was a hot fire waiting for us and a hot cup of tea, thanks to Pete. Needless to say, there was no way we were camping after having that miserable day, so we brought our gear inside and parked ourselves next to the hot stove.

We're a bit wet

Water-soaked trail: what we had to deal with for most of today's hike

Mark wanting the wet and cold to be over with

Overflowing river and boggy trail

Quite wet and ready to be dry

Drying our gear by the hot stove in Boyle Flat Hut

Inside of Boyle Flat Hut

Our last day of hiking was actually quite pleasant. The rain was finally gone, and the day was quite sunny. However, after the misery of the day before, it was a little hard to enjoy, and we just wanted to make it back to our car. We did get some good pictures on the last day though.

After making back to our car at the Boyle Outdoor Education Centre (where we parked), we quickly packed everything into the car and made our way back to Christchurch to spend a night in luxury (not really, at one of the cheaper Airbnbs we could find, but at least it had a shower, unlike our whole hike).

We later learned that the storm that rolled through carrying all this rain was the same storm that delayed our flight from Santiago to Sydney, which caused us to miss our connection to Christchurch. This storm just had it out for us.