The good weather will arrive, but it wasn’t today.

There was an extraordinary orange line across the horizon early on, like some abstract painting, but as the sky lightened, it all slowly turned grey. It stayed that way all day.

The view of Awaroa Inlet from the clearing in front of the hut was discernible for a few minutes, but it slowly closed over and the gloom pervaded.

My night on the balcony worked well.

As usual, I was the first up, but not the first to leave.

Lots of “Bye!! Graeme!!” as I strode off into the mist. I’d been hanging out with the school bunch on and off for about 42 hours, and as is usual with travellers, we had come know each other to some degree.

I was thinking I might listen to a podcast to get me through the first hour in the windfall and bracken, but I’m had managed to factory reset my iPod when I switched it off last night, and unbelievably I needed Internet access to get it operational again.

No worries, I would just enjoyed my walk in the misty forest instead.

It hasn’t ever worried me in walking a familiar path, of course I had just walked the track yesterday, but there is something different about walking the opposite direction, seems a new track.

I could rant on ad infinitum about the colours in the moist forest, but basically it was a lovely day out, particularly on top of the ridge.

One of the inhabitants of Awapoto Hut last night had made her way to Castle rock, leaving an hour before me, and I heard the blows of a blunt axe on the hardwood of manuka as I approached the hut.

Looked like I’d have some company for the evening, but quite different from the crowds of two nights ago.

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