Adventures in New Zealand

I had the privilege of leading a backpacking team last weekend. It was supposed to be a short overnight trip with a 4hr hike in and staying at a cabin (they have many of these built throughout parts of New Zealand expressly for the use of 'trampers') and returning back to the van the following day.

We started out on Saturday. There were 6 of us in total, myself, Darren (a fellow Canadian lumberjack), Jonathan, Judy, Jessica and Natalie. Some of the team had not really been hiking before but the guide book said the trail was relatively easy to hike and there should be no problems. The local weather guide said that there would be light rain but it should taper off. We had a river crossing at the start that might be a bit of a concern but the guide book also specified that should the river bu too deep to cross, there was a railway bridge a short ways upstream. We made the first river crossing in mid-shin deep water in a nice open spot. I made a judgement call that based on what the weather looked like at the time and the forecast and the condition of the river crossing that it should be totally OK for the hike back the next day. Turns out that I made a serious error in judgement...

We continued through the hike seeing some beautiful sites and scenery. The sun was shining and we were wearing our T-shirts.

We ran into trouble when we couldn't make a river crossing about 5 hours into the trail. We were headed for a cabin that could sleep about 16 people and it was just past the river crossing. We didn't want to go all the way back to the van at this time so we went back down the trail to a 6'x8' bivy that had two bunks in it (we had 6 people with a bunch of gear in our party). By this time it was raining fairly steadily. We made ourselves at home as best we could. All of the guys stood outside while the girls changed into dry clothes. The wood stove in the hut was broken so we couldn't dry out our clothes (not that we had any room to hang them up anyways). We cooked some supper, not an easy task, and then went to bed.


As all of us kept rolling over through the night (all 3 of us guys cuddled up on the floor with half of our bodies underneath the bunk bed didn't lead to a peaceful sleep) and hearing the rain non-stop we kept praying for the rain to lighten up. By the morning we were a bit worried about all the river crossings that we had ahead of us as we headed back to the van. Myself and Darren hiked back up the trail about half an hour to check out one in particular that we were worried about. There was a tree that was blown down and we found a way that we could cross over the tree and then hike around the bottom of a waterfall and climp up through the jungle to get back onto the trail, it was sketchy though especially for the girls some of who had never really done any serious hiking before. We went back to the hut and prayed about whether we should stay and wait for the rain to subside and the river levels to fall or should we head back. After praying we all felt that it would be OK to go back. So we packed up and left our cozy little home. It was still raining and we didn't have much for dry clothes. We made it over the sketchy river crossing and continued back towards the van. It was wet and windy and we had to keep moving to avoid cooling down. We finally say the lights of the highway around 6PM after hiking for about 5 hours. We were so relieved except as we came up to the last river crossing (about 5 min from the van) we realized that the river was much too high and fast too cross. No big deal as we had read in the guide book that if this was the case, we could hike upstream to a railway bridge and cross over on that. So we turned and headed upstream.

We hiked for another two hours upstream and still weren't finding this bridge that they had talked about. We ended up getting to the town of Arthur's Pass but still the river looked to be too fast. It was starting to get dark and we had to make a decision. It didn't appear as if we were going to be able to find this bridge so myself and Darren looked for a good spot to cross the river. Our intention was to cross, drop off our packs and then come back and grab the girl's packs and bring them across and then come back and help the girls across. Myself and Darren headed out to cross the river, one of us breaking the current and the other one acting as a brace. As we got halfway across the river got to above my waist and it was rushing so fast that I couldn't stand on my own without Darren bracing me. After both of us hiking 8 1/2 hrs that day we were quite tired. A little past the halfway point I told Darren that I didn't think we were even going to make it across the first time nevermind coming back and getting the girls packs. About 2/3 of the way across we couldn't hold our footing anymore and were swept downstream. Our packs pulled us down a bit but for the most part we were able to keep our feet pointed downstream and then Darren managed to regain his footing and helped to drag me over to the other side. We were completely soaked but relieved to be alive and safe. We yelled back that we were going for help. The Lord really guided us to where we crossed the river as the first building that we came across was the local police station. There was an emergency phone outside and Darren was able to dial in and get some help sent to where we were. I was starting to worry about hypotheremia at this time (just before we crossed the river I tried to re-tie my shoelaces and I could barely make my fingers obey what my brain was telling them). The rescue team came and was able to find the rest of our team on the other side of the river. They couldn't bring in a helicopter because of the conditions and not having the right equipment. They didn't want to risk sending somebody across in a kyak because of the darkness and how fast the river was. Apparently they didn't have any whitewater rafting boats that they could send across. The next option that they had was to send in a rescue team across the railway bridge and bring our guys some dry supplies. It was going to take the team two hours to hike in from the railway bridge (it's a good thing that we didn't continue to hike for it, we never would have made it in the dark). Although the guide book mentioned that the bridge was there, it definitely forgot to mention that it was a 4 hour hike away and that it was nearly impossible to get to because of the steep gorge on each side of it). Turns out that the rescue team couldn't get to them because they ran into some other river crossings that they weren't able to get over. So the rest of our team had to spend the whole night huddled up in their wet clothes inside their sleeping bags underneath a tree on the wrong side of a raging river. Myself and Darren were unable to do anything so we had to go and get ourselves warmed up as we were also approaching hypothermia. So we got a hotel room and took a warm shower and then prayed hard. Overnight the rain turned mostly into snow which helped the river level to drop. By 6 the next morning a rescue team was able to get across and bring the rest of our team back over. They were all safe and sound, but very very cold and wet.

So although the Lord didn't answer any of our prayers for the rain stopping, or the wind stopping, or to heal Natalie's shins (she had scars that broke through and started to bleed and the cold water really affected her severely), or for us to find the railway bridge, He definitely answered the biggest prayer of all which was to keep us alive and safe. So thanks and glory to God for that!

We made the second page of the newspaper for Christchurch (biggest city on the South Island of New Zealand). As usual, you can't trust a newspaper reporter. They had a slant that they wanted to report and the story was twisted out of proportion. Not too much of a deal, the Lord will use it how He wants to. They reported that we prayed so maybe that will come to something. Anyways, it was all quite the adventure and this all in the first week of the school. Welcome to backpacking in New Zealand!

Thanks to all for your prayers, they do make a difference!