In fact, there was no sunshine today. Though I was glad to not be awake at 5am to have to catch the shuttle to the Crossing, I was still a little disappointed when I woke, shortly after 6am, that the weather was not cooperating and it wasn’t going to happen. I laid in bed and had no idea what to do with myself today. It was still dry out but I knew the rain was coming and I did not know how hard or how soon it would arrive so I didn’t want to get going on a trail that would leave me caught out in a storm. I took my time around the cabin, spent a couple hours writing, made breakfast and then sat there for an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out what to do with myself today. I was also freezing cold. I had tried to build a fire in the heating stove, the only heat source in this place, and failed miserably. Every five minutes for over an hour I poked and prodded and tried to get it going, and then I ran out of matches and instead all I had was one log, smoldering with no flame and doing me no good. I was so cold that I wanted to put on gloves, but that would not have been efficient for trying to write or research.
The Timber Trail is predominantly a mountain bike trail typically ridden as a two day track. However, it is also open for hikers, and there are suggested routes for hiking. I chose one that seemed to be on the shorter side of the hikes at three hours to the spiral, whatever that is, and whose trailhead location made sense based on where I was coming from. It was around noon when I finally pulled my rain pants on over my leggings and got out the door to hit the road, back up through Taumarunui, to Ongarue and the trail head.
The rain started and I pulled weather reports for various locations. Where was it going to be the lightest?! The forecast was showing moderate to heavy in Tongariro National Park all day so I had to cross that off as an option, however, back a bit north, up near the Timber Trail, it was showing as light to moderate. Ok that’s only a 50 minute drive and the Timber Trail has been on my list as a trail I’d like to do if I could manage it so I decided that it would be my hike for today.
Coming through Taumarunui, I stopped to drive through McDonald’s and see what the New Zealand McDonald’s was like nowadays. It was OK; my cheeseburger tasted worse than normal but my McChicken tasted better. Most importantly, I am pretty damn proud of myself for navigating the drive-through and not hitting anything.
Rained fell the entire drive. I pulled into the car park and sat in the car just staring out at the weather. And the rain came down harder. Did I really want to do this? I already felt like an idiot being a hiker on a track that’s predominantly bikes. Looking around the parking lot and seeing that I would be the only person getting out there without a bike didn’t help. I hadn’t even stepped out of my car yet and I already felt judged as a hiker. Yup, I definitely felt lame.
But what the hell else was I going to do with myself? I put on my rain jacket, pulled my duck back over my pack, and pretended like the rain wasn’t bugging me as much as it really was as I started down the trail. The narrow trail was on the edge of farm land with a little stream running along the other side. Named the Timber Trail I had expected it to be in the forest and, based on the pictures I’ve seen with all the swing bridges that interested me in the trail in the first place, I really expected it to be more in the forest and less along the farm land. I had really hoped it would be in the forest as the trees would provide some cover from the rain. I kept hiking and there was never any cover or protection from the elements.
I stepped aside to let the occasional bikers pass me, jealous that their bikes meant that they were making quicker progress than I was. It was Interesting that the deer in a pasture didn’t seem upset by the bikers but they sure were keeping an eye on me on foot. Even they were judging me.
It wasn’t cold, so that was nice, but wearing rain gear is so annoying. That’s really the worst part about hiking in the rain, the gear. If my rain jacket hood were more fitted it may not have been so annoying, but it was irritating to deal with the oversized hood and not be able to get to my leggings pocket under my rain pants. And since it wasn’t particularly cold, I ended up getting hot and feeling stuffy.
To be perfectly honest, I was not enjoying myself. I spent most of the first hour or so questioning why I was out there at all. Is my hiking ego that bad that I can’t just suck it up and do nothing? Maybe not my hiking ego but my adventure ego is. There’s literally nothing indoors to do in this area so being outside is my only option and I’m in freaking New Zealand so I’m not going to waste a day doing absolutely nothing. I started to feel really down on this trip. Why am I here in this weather? I want to be outdoors, but I don’t want to be wet. I guess I wouldn’t mind the rain if wearing rain gear wasn’t so annoying but that’s not the reality right now.
When I’m hiking alone I typically like to just be with my thoughts, I don’t put on any music or anything else to listen to. It’s also a safety issue as I need to be able to hear if someone is coming. However, hiking in this rain was so bad I eventually put on a downloaded audiobook to help keep me moving. I kept checking my watch to see how long I’ve been on the trail. If this is a three hour return hike I should be at the spiral about an hour and a half in. Am I there yet?! I wanted to give up, but I kept going. After a solid 90 minutes I realized that I did not seem to be anywhere near this spiral. Well, the trail has no markers along it, I reached a crossing of a road and pulled out the trail map, this time I was smart enough to have a picture of the trail map with me, and I could tell that I was still quite a ways off from this mysterious spiral. Maybe the scale on the map is wrong? I kept hiking, the trail had left the farm land behind a while ago, and the track now had a relatively sheer cliff to the side. A sign warned to keep moving and not stop for the next 1500m due to the risk of landslide and falling rocks. The rain was still pounding down, I wasn’t even enjoying my audiobook, and I was so over it. I stopped for a second and contemplated; did I really care that much? No. I don’t. Normally this would be a beautiful hike but in this rain I am not even enjoying myself. What is the point of being out here? I didn’t like the direction either myself or my audiobook was going. I set my ego aside, turned myself around, put on a different audiobook, and headed back from whence I’d come. Who am I today that I’m out here on a trail in New Zealand listening to a freaking audiobook?
I kept distracting myself from my book, thinking about why I’m out here and wondering what I’m going to do for the rest of my trip. The rain is not supposed to let up and I really don’t want to do this anymore. I would rather be home or elsewhere if I’m not able to enjoy myself out here. I was feeling really down. I made it back to the car and realized, as I looked again at the trail descriptions to see if there was anything else worth seeing, that I had missed a little asterisk at the bottom of the guide, “All times quoted are one way.” I felt better about turning around since I was only halfway to whatever the spiral is but I also feel dumb that I hadn’t seen that note and felt like I wasted my time hiking over 8 miles in the nonstop rain.
I had passed an alpaca farm on my way out with the cutest little baby alpacas in a pasture near the road, and a sign for an alpaca shop and encounters. Since I was off the trail slightly before 4pm I had time to stop there on my way back. Having seen the adorable babies in the pasture in front when I drove by earlier I knew that petting a baby alpaca could totally turn my day around. The farm still had a giant open sign hanging and the gate open so I turned in and drove up the steep gravel driveway. It was odd, though, because really, I was driving up to someone’s house with a little garage shop to the side. A lady walked out of the house, and I rolled down my car window to inquire if the shop was open. “Of course,” she said, and she walked over to unlock the shop for me. I inquired about the alpaca experiences that they had listed including one to hug a baby alpaca. Seeing that they close soon I politely inquired if there was time for a brief experience? I didn’t even need the full experience, I’ll pay for it, but really I just want to get to hug the babies. She didn’t seem interested in my desire and shot me down, “Oh, it’s a bit late.” Damn I want to hug a baby alpaca. She was not overly friendly or engaging but still I spent more money than intended to on homemade wares in her little shop as I felt pressured to since she had opened the door for and I in order to try to butter her up, hoping there was a a chance she’d acquiesce to my alpaca hugging desire. But she was not budging. Despite the money I spent in her shop she was not interested in indulging me, no matter how many hints I dropped or how many times I mentioned how I just wanted to hug a baby alpaca and how cute they were. I tried. I may not have hugged a baby alpaca, but I now have a new scarf, beanie, and some weird alpaca hair soap that really kind of freaks me out.
It was too early to stop in Taumarunui for dinner, so I kept driving back towards Raurimu and figured I would have to just figure something out again in the town of National Park. My car decided that my day hasn’t been irritating enough and started sounding an alarm. Though I’ve done a ton of driving the last few days with my pack sitting on the back seat it has now decided that my pack is a child and should be strapped in. For miles it yelled at me for the unstrapped weight while I turned my music up to drown out the chiming alarm.
I found my only option in town open for dinner, aside from the takeout cart I ordered from the other night, Schnapps Bar. Dinner was a massive quantity of fish and chips, mostly just the fish not many of the chips, and a side salad. It felt good to have some greens. I reflected on how frustrated I feel about my trip as I ate and how much I hate that I’m not happy here right now. It’s not worth being away from home if I’m not able to enjoy myself.
I sent a message my AirBnB host, asking if he would be around this evening to help me start a fire so I didn’t freeze. When I arrived back at my little treehouse cottage, he was standing in front of the stove, having gotten a fire going for me. He gave me a tutorial on how to keep it going through the evening, and how to relight it myself in the morning, so hopefully I don’t freeze again.
Do you know the problem with a wood stove though? Heat rises. Maybe that’s not a problem in itself but the problem is the way this place is laid out versus the location of the stove. The heating stove is in the kitchen, which is on the middle level. There is a loft above it, but both the sitting area and the bedroom are a few steps down lower than the kitchen. While the kitchen got smoldering hot, the sitting area the bedroom didn’t pick up much heat at all. Thankfully, there is a window seat in the kitchen as well, and I have spent my evening sitting here, soaking up the heat instead of shivering in the living room.
You know the other problem? If you aren’t careful when you add logs, bits of smoldering wood could fly out. My heart just stopped racing from almost setting my boots on fire. I have them laid out in front of the stove to dry out from today’s wet adventure and when I threw on a fresh log burning red scraps of wood flew out and landed INSIDE MY BOOTS. I grabbed them and ran outside, banging them upside on the landing, terrified that they would go up in flames. Crisis averted and lesson learned to be way more careful.
I’m not quite sure what the weather looks like tomorrow but I am leaving here in the morning to head to Rotorua. There are a number of things I want to do in Turangi and Taupo on my way, so I’m just hoping that the weather cooperates at least somewhat. I have my day mapped for tomorrow so I feel accomplished as far as having a plan; let’s see what I can actually get done.
Taking On the World 
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