Rangihaeata man completes South Island Traverse
Tramper extraordinaire Paul Kilgour.
Wilderness tramper Paul Kilgour of Rangihaeata has seen much of New Zealand’s most rugged backcountry. Now he can add a traverse of the South Island to his achievements.
He emerged at Uruwhenua last Friday having walked all the way, in two stages, from Puysegur Point at Preservation Inlet in southwest Fiordland. That first stage to Tekapo he did in 48 days over last summer (2008), much of his route being cross-country.
“That was extremely challenging country. Some days I walked for 15 hours just to avoid the sandflies.”
The second stage just completed, from Tekapo to home, took 37 days, with four rest days on top of that. Some of Paul’s route was on tracks and via high country stations, like over the Craigieburn Range, through Arthur’s Pass, and along Lake Sumner. But much of it was untracked country where he relied on his handheld GPS to make sure he was heading in the right direction.
The longest sector in this latest trip was from the start at Tekapo to where he crossed Arthur’s Pass Highway at Cass, 14 days later. The longest he went without seeing anyone was five days, and his favourite spot was way up the Matiri valley towards Hurricane Hut.
Paul lost around 4kg of bodyweight on the trip, which is deceptive he reckons because his legs have muscled up from all the effort. “The weight has just shifted down,” he laughs.
“The more I walked, the less I seemed to want to eat.” For his trip grub, Paul went for “Back Country” dried meals. Meat and cheesy pastas were his favourites, which he cooked in subtle variations of a “one pot slosh”, adding curry mixtures for variety. A big oatmeal breakfast fortified him for each day ahead, and he now swears by the OSM (One Square Meal) bars that boosted his energy along the way. He “gram-counted” everything he carried before he set out to make sure his Aarn backpack would not exceed 20kg.
Apart from a broken front tooth and a couple of blisters acquired on the first days, he has come out of the venture remarkably unscathed.
Being back has taken some adjustment. “Noise! There’s just so much more noise. When I first came back and heard a radio or TV, I just wanted to switch it off. It’s a big change coming from the wilderness to so-called civilisation.”
Gerard Hindmarsh
