Miserable in name only
It’s a long haul onto the tops from Rapid Creek Hut in the lower Hokitika Valley. More so when the route taken is by the aptly named Miserable Ridge. The 1200m climb is stretched out over 4km of ridgeline. And it’s steep.
Tim and I had begun our trip near the Hokitika Gorge Swingbridge, a popular tourist attraction on the West Coast.
Out of the ute, we began the trudge alongside the boisterous and intimidating flow of the Hokitika River, first over farm flats then riverbed, then the old greasy pack track up to the cableway and Rapid Creek Hut.
The cableway is quite something. Spanning the river on a single 100m-long wire, the small aluminium cage runs trampers across in a long swoop to mid-river and then a slow grind on the winch to the far side. It’s a buzz to zoom out to the middle, airily observing mountain, river and sky as Tim
