By Elliot
The section from St.Arnaud to Boyle Village was spectacular. It had everything you could want from a tramp. Beautiful views.
The nicest huts we’ve stayed in so far.
And great weather.
And yet. Though on paper it sounds like we would enjoy this section more than the Richmonds, it turned out not to be the case. Maybe we should’ve taken an extra day of rest in St Arnaud.
On the physical side, I found myself with low energy most afternoons, and even some mornings. Emotionally I was still happy, but it was tough. Ruth had foot pain the entire section that didn’t go away. An Advil made the pain abate temporarily, but that’s not a long term solution. Ruth also had digestion issues that continued from the previous section. It’s very difficult when the urge to use the toilet strikes and you are halfway up a steep scree slope with no where to go but up or down.
A thought that came back to me on this section is: Ruth and I are not adventurers. We aren’t travellers. We love the comforts of home too much. In biblical parlance, we are more Jacob than Esau. Which isn’t to say we are unhappy on our trip. Overall, the weight of missing home is being more than balanced out by the hiking, the gorgeous scenery, and the memories we get to form by the sheer intensity of this trip. But we need to be vigilant, because some days the weight of home is the heavier one, and those are tough days. It’s interesting also to talk to other hikers, and realize that not everyone shares this issue. For some people, the travellers, the adventurers, home is light. Sometimes home is so light that it fits in their backpack, and they don’t need to make a decision between home and an epic journey.
Coming back to Jacob and Esau for a moment. Given the good deal that Jacob got by making a good soup/stew, I don’t know why Jewish men are not encouraged to be good cooks, neither religiously nor culturally. Maybe it should be part of being bar mitzvah-ed. You read from the Torah, and then at the kiddush lunch after, everyone eats the stew you prepared. But I digress.
Ultimately, we are proud to have finished another tough section. And, at the end of this section of trail, as we stood in the middle of nowhere on the side of a highway in the mountains of the South Island, after five days away from civilization, and we stuck our thumbs out to try to hitch a ride, I marvelled at what our lives have become. Riding high on our accomplishment and the nice weather, I thought, isn’t this so fun?
