All the hiking I’ve done so far has been fun in its own right, but I’ve also specifically been trying to keep up a solid pace to build up fitness for huge day hikes. I got into these kinds of hikes when I was road tripping around the states in my lovely hatchback during the summer of 2019. The first taste I had was the incredible 19 mile Dawson/Pitamakan loop in Glacier National Park, and the crowning achievement was the Cactus to Clouds hike in Palm Springs, with Mount Whitney and an easy stroll up Half Dome also on the list (yes, I’m bragging). For whatever reason I seem to prefer these big day hikes to backpacking, probably because I get a bigger sense of achievement from them while also getting to sleep more comfortably and carry a lighter pack up the mountain.

Mount Owen was my first go at getting back to huge hikes. It’s typically summited as an overnight where you stay in one of New Zealand’s famous backcountry huts, but ain’t nobody got time for that. It’s a big day – my watch clocked it at 17 miles and 7,345 feet of elevation, and it took me 11.5 hours. On top of that it’s a pretty funky trail. Rather than just steadily climbing towards the summit, it starts off extremely steep uphill, then plunges extremely steep downhill, and then levels off for a long ways before getting extremely steep again up to the summit. So you have very steep uphill and downhill in both directions, which really gets the heart rate going. All the hiking beforehand did its job though, and I felt reasonably strong throughout.

The trail itself is absolutely magical, with maybe the most variety I’ve ever come across on a single trail. Passing through different ecotones as you gain elevation is always a cool part of hiking, and this trail did not disappoint. It started with a steep, difficult, bushwhacking ascent up a ridge, which then flattened out into a bit of a meadow. I started at 6:30am so everything was totally socked in and I was just walking through fog.

Very soon after that I got into a beautiful forest, and then quickly hit the steep downhill section. On the way down I passed a couple with big backpacking packs coming “down” from the hut, taking frequent breaks as they sweated up this steep section. If I hadn’t already been glad to have a small pack that certainly would have made me appreciate it. After this forested section things began to flatten out and open up a bit, right as the sun started burning off the clouds. I started to catch glimpses of the limestone peaks all around that I’d eventually be climbing.

Now the really cool sections of the trail began. First was a transition to what kind of felt like an oasis, with more tropical plants on either side and lots of yellow wildflowers everywhere. The ground was covered in the dead leaves of these plants that look so unusual to me, emphasizing how different this section looked. And then suddenly I was just hopping rock to rock, going up a dry riverbed. This continued for a while before things opened up into alpine meadows and I reached the hut. All the while I was getting more and more views of the limestone mountains all around.

From this point it was like a completely different hike. I was above the treeline cruising through alpine meadows with lovely tarns, including one that had an adorable little island in it. The whole time I was looking up at all the peaks around me, wondering which one I was going to end up climbing, and how. The how turned out to be quite the thing – it’s hard to capture in pictures, but the rocks were amazing, glacier-carved limestone that really looked like flowing water. The trail went from a well maintained path to a series of rock cairns where you pretty much had to just pick your way through the rocks, climbing around and hopping over several quite deep crevasses.

Eventually the rock-hopping stopped and it became a very, very steep scramble up to the summit. And man was it worth it! The top was a mostly flat slab of limestone, and it afforded 360 degree views of mountains in every direction. The sun was out, lunch was on, and man, I felt great.

On the way back I immediately took a wrong turn and spent about 20 minutes scrambling around rocks off track. So that was a good start. I eventually got myself reoriented and managed not to lose the trail again. I really enjoyed how things look different when you’re moving in the opposite direction, and took the chance to snap a few more photos. I also took an alternative route for the very last section, which consisted of a very steep, muddy, tree-crossed, poorly formed trail down along a stream through beautiful forest, and then a flat stroll to the end. I was glad to have done that section on the way down rather than up.

So that was Mount Owen, a hell of day. After that I finally made it over to the west coast and spent a couple of nights in Westport. I bought a camera from a store up in Auckland and am waiting for them to ship it to a hostel in Westport, so I figured I’d spend a few days there surfing to mix things up and give my legs a break. Yesterday I went and rented a board and headed out for a disastrous surf session – I couldn’t get out past the break! I knew I was going to be out of shape, but that was enough of a bummer that it put me off a bit. And as it happens a huge swell was coming in today, so I decided to switch the plan up again and head north up the coast, to the other side of Kahurangi National Park. I’m planning on hiking the next two days and then heading back down to Westport once the swell is more manageable, where I’ll get past the break or die trying!