“On a Mish” #352 Grandeur on Steroids (Part Four). Upper Rakaia River (Evans Hut to Upper Rakaia). Canterbury. Aotearoa. 8.10.2022. There aren’t too many places left in the world where you can go and know you’re the only one to get there in quite some time. The feeling of success is grand when you’ve faced a challenge and defeated the distance between easy terrain and your goal. Both my cousin Adam and I had that very feeling of winning when we rolled up to Evans Hut which is located far up the mighty Rakaia Valley, and a place we were told we probably wouldn’t get to in a vehicle. You would think after such an epic battle we would be done, but when surrounded by a grandeur that seems like it has been enhanced by wilderness steroids you crave more…
After bouncing our way to Evans Hut and then a magical morning watching an asteroid blaze it’s way across the eastern horizon, we saddled up and continued our quest to where driving becomes impossible. We had food and fuel for another night and the day dawned clear and calm. Just like day one, today was going to be epic!
We got started on an old track which deteriorated very quickly, and with that I was out of the truck avoiding being shaken to pieces and searching for a way through the maze of boulders, trenches. And of course the huge river that sat between us and our desired location of Reischek Hut. As I limped along in front of Adam and the Jimny I soaked in the scenery of a place I really wanted to hike to before my injury, a place I never dreamed I’d get to after.
As we pushed on, we could see roughly where the hut was, and we knew from looking at maps that there was a formed track on the other side of the valley. But getting there proved to be a real mish. For most of it I would hike along pointing out any ‘big’ boulders that could damage the truck, but on the odd occasion I just shrugged my shoulders and thought we reached a point where all we could do was turn back. When this happened Adam would just get out and either drag a couple of stones out of the way or get the shovel out and dig a way around the blockade. The distance to the other side wasn’t far, but it took many hours.
Slowly but surely, we crept along until we reached a point where we could see easy ground but had to cross the river. Fording the Rakaia is no joke and after walking the shoreline for a while we found a place where it seemed possible to cross without floating away. I always get nervous when dealing with water (both on foot and in a vehicle). The river was swift, and it was hard to tell how deep it really was. The truck plunged into the icy water and after a few nervous moments we rolled out onto the other side. With that watery obstacle out of the way we found ourselves on the true right of the Rakaia and on the old track that led up to the hut…
