There was one other obstacle I’d have to face that day. It was the last big river crossing, and the widest crossing on the TA. One more river, at the end of this very trail. After all the rivers I had forded in the previous sections, I finally hoped to put them behind me…

I quickly moved on from the hut, turned around the corner and found myself face to face with Hakatere River, which had become a terrifyingly raging torrent. I didn’t know much about rivers, but I knew that this wasn’t what it was supposed to look like…

I was expecting another Richmond Range or Waiau Pass, something similar but entirely different at the same time. I had no idea that the next stretch would be nothing like that, that no stretch would ever be anything like those behind me again, and that out of the entire TA, the leg between Boyle Village and Arthur’s Pass would become the section I resented the most.

Each step afforded a small but significant difference in the view of the lake behind. It was a marvellous sight, the blue alpine lake surrounded by mountains. It was the best single view I’d had so far. In fact, the single best view I would have along the entire TA…

I set off just as the sun hit the top of the ridge I was headed to, an orange glow that intensified and grew. I had never started hiking this early, and this was the first time I’d ever seen the layers of mountain colour grey in the distance with the sky lighting up in the back, and everything around me blossoming and warm. I bathed in the glow of rising sun, a morning of simple beauty…

Once I found the sea the grey sky was everywhere, and it began to rain. I walked along the shore and saw the small park. That was it. It was distinctly unimpressive and desolate, the TA’s stone memorial tucked into the back of a playground…