St James Walkway

During my first trip out of Christchurch, in 2010, my then post-doc advisor pointed out the St James Walkway to me, and ever since I wanted to walk it. My first tramp in New Zealand was indeed the first day of this trail (and back), but we never managed to tackle the whole thing.

Because we mainly went back to New Zealand to finish all the tramping trails that we still had on our list when we left in 2013, the St James was high on the agenda. With Easter coming up, we decided that was going to be the best option.

So we left home on Thursday, in order to beat the crowds of other people that would want to do the trail in the Easter weekend. This proved to be a super winning idea.

The St James is almost a loop, but there are 18 km highway in between beginning and end. There is however a shuttle service that drive you to the beginning in your own car, and then take it back and park it at the end of the track, very convenient.

We started walking and were soon surrounded by all our favourite New Zealand forest birds that like to come close to see if there's any insects flying around your shoes that they can eat. Thomas spent quite some time happily chatting and chirping at and with the birds, until one of them started to pick at his pack.

After a beautiful and up-and-down'ish walk through forest and valley, we reached our goal, Ada pass hut. The strategy of leaving 1 day before everyone else paid off, we were the only occupants of the hut. We built a nice fire, cooked couscous (without courgette or kalamata olives…), watched the sunlight fade out over the mountain tops, listened to the creek, and talked about our fieldwork adventures.

The next morning we packed up, swept the hut, and started walking. We soon reached Ada pass, and descended again into grassy valleys where Canada geese flocked and the sun shone.




We had a long day as we combined 2 shorter parts of the trail into 1 day, so we took short breaks and kept going and going. We met 2 people suddenly which startled all of us, seeing people after so many hours without any signs of civilization.

Finally towards 6 pm we reached Anne hut. 1 pair of boots was already there, and we were the only 3 people in the hut that night, plus at least 1 mouse. This night we saw the moon rise over the mountains, and talked about other tracks in New Zealand with our French hut-mate.



At night I was kept awake by irregular creaking of plastic bags until I finally spotted a mouse running away. I hang all the food on the wall, but the mouse kept going at my coconut soap and rummaging through Thomas' bag looking for chocolate crumbs. The French guy also had a mouse encounter when it walked over his face, the reason why I always choose the top-bunks in huts, where mice are a little less likely to climb up to!

In the morning clouds were gathering, as expected, and soon we were walking in drizzle, and then rain. Eventually we put on all our raingear and protective covers over the packs. There was supposed to be a small hut halfway where I wanted to have lunch, but it was much further than anticipated. Despite our raingear being all high-tech and expensive, everything still got wet so we were sloshing unhappily through the wet grass and gusty rainy wind. The Easter crowds started to get in from the other side of the track and we suddenly met more people than we had seen in all the days prior. As happens in New Zealand you will run into people you know in the remotest area, and we bumped into our science manager with her family. She told us the hut where they had stayed had been completely overfull and we once again were happy with our decision to start a day earlier.

In our lunch hut, finally, we let all the raingear drip, cooked some hot 2-minute noodles, put on all the wet gear again and kept going.





Our last hut, Boyle, wasn't far anymore now and when it arrived even earlier than expected and we smelled a fire already going, we were quite pleased. The French guy was there again, and 2 through-hikers of the Te Araroa trail that traverses New Zealand. They had made a fire, and we all hung our wet socks and made cups of hot tea. Two wet hunters also arrived who had had a bit of a rough night on a mountain top with 1 of them nearly blowing off the mountain in his tent, and his tent leaking afterwards, so he hang his sleeping bag and tent to dry too. They kept checking out the hill sides for things to shoot which was quite entertaining but they didn't find anything. Just before dark 2 more hikers arrived, so we were 9 in the 20 person hut and all was cosy. Although it was nice to be alone in the first hut, it is usually also nice to meet other trampers and talk about what everyone has seen and where everyone is going.

Our last day was very sunny again so we could see more of the landscape and enjoy the walk more. Every day was quite different in this track, every day another nice surprise. The last day was relatively easy and short, we tried to make it a bit longer by taking breaks and enjoying the last hours of being outside. Nevertheless it was good to reach the car and home to take off the stinky socks, eat fresh fruit from the garden and take a shower.

So that was our first longer tramp again in NZ, 66 km in 4 days, but no high mountains or very steep terrain. Our knees, hips, other joints, feet, backs, and morales kept up very well, so we're planning more trips hopefully soon (despite winter approaching! Just have to plan shorter days).