Travel: The Mount Somers hike that became quite the journey
Dylan du Ross, from Hawke’s Bay, is sharing his travel experiences around New Zealand.
“It's not about the destination, it's about the journey.”
As cliché as it is, these words could not ring truer when describing our hike around Mount Somers.
Thinking back, I'm not sure what exactly our intentions were. Why were we going to a mountain at 12.30pm anyway? Lunch had yet to be had and we were wearing clothes that we woke up in. On arrival we noticed two huts on the map. 30 minutes later, we were back with two DOC passes. The most disorganised overnight hike began.
The path to the hut was entertaining. It taught lessons about the old mining history, it had a balanced amount of incline/decline, stunning views and enough slippery mud to keep us on our toes. Crickets seemed to be in the same boat as they slowly leapt down the track, obviously enjoying themselves as they effortlessly spring from place to place.
Eventually we found ourselves looking down on the first hut. Two parents and their young ones were sitting down playing. Normally, this would be a nice sight, but in this case it was the same family we had passed very early on in the hike, meaning we had gone the wrong way. Oh dear. A quick scramble down the mountain left us 30 minutes behind schedule. Time to get a move on.
After a beauteous two hours hiking, we were hopeful for an equally rewarding second half to our day. It's always good to be hopeful, but maybe being too hopeful can sometimes be a bad thing. Interesting rock formations were everywhere, some towered tall attempting to intimidate, others just sat there steady, basking in old age and wisdom. Mount Somers was certainly a mysterious place. The canopy began to open, our hut for the night appeared. We had made it.
“Our hut” soon became “our deck” as we quickly found out it was full. During the winter season bookings are not necessary, meaning huts apply a "first in first serve" rule, leading to situations like this. At this point in time I strongly disagreed with the system. Things settled down. We got over the fact we were sleeping on a deck of a waterless hut for $30 and began our cresting our staple dinner of couscous and veges. Personally I love it. Cheap, quick, and light to carry.
A dad comes over and says he’s convinced his daughter and son to share a bed. I bet they’re not happy with it but we accepted immediately. Things were looking up. Particularly the temperature as 30 people crammed into a 16-bunk room. However, without saying too much more, in fear of looking ungrateful, we went to sleep (not really, a man snoring and I stuck to the plastic mattress like a plaster).
At 7.30am we quickly left the hut behind. A river close by filled the remaining bottles that weren’t popped from our kitchen knife (yep that happened, soaking Maggie's bag in the process). It was this same river that Maggie fell into not long after. Although nothing serious has happened, I just couldn't believe how many annoying things were occurring. A waterfall that fell over the top of us helped lighten the mood, personally it was rare to see the geographical feature from this view, compared to looking at the outside. Two and half hours later we found ourselves on the opposite car park. Hooray. It was time to walk the other half of the mountain.
Unfortunately Mount Somers immediately proves there's two sides to every story. One, which is playful, fun and entertaining, the second, which is untidy, sad, and grumpy. No wonder walking around this side of the mountain isn't very popular. A chain helped us pull ourselves up a hill of sludge, coating our legs in thick brown mud. It was interesting how one side can be so, so different to other. What was nice was the honey nectar drops from surround trees, I spent the next hour slowing Maggie down by stopping and eating as much of it as I can.
Our highest point reached was 1085m on Stanley's Hill. This was meant to be the most beautiful part of the hike but of course huge clouds had come to hug the mountains, blocking any sort of view. Time was of the essence, not allowing us to wait out the clouds. We pushed on, determined to finish in daylight.
Eventually, after nine hours of hiking, we reached our car, it was the most relieving thing that's happened to me in the last six months. I think some takeaway Chinese was deservedly due. Forty minutes of gravel road later we had arrived. I grab my wallet…. Well I wish I grabbed my wallet, turns out it had fallen out back at the Mount Somers car park. What a day.
