PAKITUHI HUT: THE HARDEST CLIMB OF MY LIFE
- coupkovasvatava
- Nov 30, 2017
- 3 min read
The Pakituhi hut sits in the altitude of nearly 1 300 metres above sea level just below Breast Hill (1 578 m), surrounded by peaks of the Hawea Conservation Area. It was 9.15 when we fought our way through the herd of cows being moved to a different paddock, parked our car by Lake Hawea and started to climb up. It was already hot but we were lucky enough – our side of the mountain was still shaded and we made the first, zig-zag part of the track pretty fast.
I don´t know why mum thought that once we reached the small saddle and started to walk along the ridge the worst was done. She said that she had done the track before so one would expect her to know that on the contrary the worst was yet to come. When I saw where we were scrambling, I couldn´t help but start thinking about how the hell we were going to get back down tomorrow. So I better went to sleep.
When I woke up mum was leaning on one of those orange-plastic-tube-ended marker poles, all red and sweaty. The last half an hour until we reached the hut she was stopping at each of them, claiming that she was enjoying the views, but I think she was actually pretty tired and in fact was catching her breath. Speaking about the views – on Lake Hawea and all the peaks, saddles and ridges: even I have to admit that they were AMAZING.
And then I saw the hut and was put down to walk the last bit and it was hard because it was downhill and the path was very narrow. But there we were, at the Pakituhi hut, built in 2011.
When we ate our soup mum brought the mats from inside on the porch and we were lying in the shade, doing nothing until the older kiwi couple of retired farmers joined us for lunch.
Then mum realized that the next day we were going to need to get back and she started to look for how we could possibly avoid the steep way down. She found a 4WD track in her map and we even walked a few hundred metres in that direction just to find a gate with a huge sign “Hawea Station, Private property, No trespassing” :-(.
It was almost five when French and German couples came to the hut to stay overnight. They were awesome – we talked a lot and also played with candles and tiny frozen balls which mum said were called hails and they were delivered to us by the hailstorm. Everybody must have been pretty tired, because I was the last one to go to bed. But when I finally fell asleep I slept all night long and didn´t wake up until 6.30 – when I made sure everybody knew it was morning already.
We took off at 8.15, which was good because it was not too hot yet. I have to say I didn´t like it: instead of walking normally – vertically – mum was leaning to the right, to the left and even forwards and backwards all the time and it was very uncomfortable. Then she started to explain some theory of gravity and said I should try to hug her tight and be as close to her as possible which was silly because I was really mad at her by then and didn´t want to touch her at all.
Fortunately we reached the place where the zig-zag track started and mum put me down to have a snack before the final (and the easiest) descent. That was where “our” Germans passed us and where I met the Finnish couple who came there for a day walk. I talked to them for a bit and they were super funny and nice and I decided I was going with them. But mum refused to go up again, I don´t know why. Instead we walked the last bit on which I managed to fall asleep for about 15 minutes.
On the way back home we met the Germans once again and we gave them a ride to their car parked far far away. Then we went for a swim in the lake: mum said her muscles needed it really badly and I think she will be pretty sore tomorrow.
Your Annie
