tramping new zealand

A day here with the goats, I count nine in one sighting, a scraggly billy that seems to be moulting and the alpha male, a couple more adult males, one with half a horn broken off, guess there is a story to that, some nannies and a couple of kids. Somehow the black one I saw yesterday isn’t in that count and there may be others, overall they seem unconcerned by my presence, happily munching on the well trimmed lawn, plenty of pellets dispensed as fertiliser.

It was calm when I woke, still dark, just after 6 am. Mars visible and setting over Little Rintoul.

Calm, ha? Wasn’t today supposed to be gales.

Well, eventually some clouds appeared, stretched and aligned that indicate high winds up there, gusts down here now and then, the top of the hill disappeared in cloud, which was whizzing along, ie, overall it didn’t seem such a goofy idea to take the day off.

The hut is pleasant, there’s one timber bed with two windows to look out, checking on those goats, no need to reside in a squeaky metal bunk which makes up the other four bed spaces. So plenty of light from the three windows, an Oregon potbelly stove and when you go and look for it, plenty of recently fallen branches down at the end of the clearing, dry, good burning, that can be quickly hacked up using the only decent bow saw I’ve come across at one of these huts.

It’s Day 7 of my Little Adventure and my body is confirming it’s time to have a break. I’ve still got seven evening meals and even more breakfasts, I guess I’ll have to jump a hut or two because there are still seven huts on the track but I’ll figure that out once my pack is lighter.

The wind is supposed to turn to the south and the temperature to drop a whole lot of degrees, a short period of heavy rain but now, later in the afternoon, there’s no evidence of that, the wind is still beating in from the west.

There’s a bit to do on a rest day, wash some clothes and self, find some wood, read the hut literature, the hut book, then repeat, except for the washing, observe the goats, drink innumerable cups of coffee, for some reason I have a oversupply in that department, then spend the rest of the day taking toilet breaks.

Other than that it was me and my goats, occasionally peering out to see if the wind had changed to the south. I’m just about to scoff my dinner and the wind is still powering in directly from the west. No rain, just that full on wind.