tramping new zealand

When I awoke during the night I couldn’t hear rain. Maybe it was snowing.

I woke around 6 30 am, pre-dawn, as usual, to find no snow at this level, it was in fact drizzling. The 7 am weather forecast was not exactly promising: showers in the morning, clearing up in the afternoon.

Fingers crossed.

That was fine drizzle, but still drenching. No point in continuing on today.

My body has been complaining about the efforts being required of it by my mind, I could sure do with the day off to recharge my batteries on Day 10 .

Outside, when I went for a wander to the toilet, there was new snow about 200 m above the hut, that’s around 1000 m, a dusting though, not a heavy snowfall.

Drizzle should not cause major issues with the river crossings ahead, the ground soaks up that kind of precipitation and the run-off is not huge. There has to be heavy rain for a while to really get the rivers up. They go down quickly as well, the steep slopes shed water in a hurry.

By lunchtime it was mizzle, just foggy up top, and being still 5 or 6°C inside, time to return to my sleeping bag and read a book. As you might expect it didn’t take long for my eyes to close and have a snooze, but I managed to make my way through a chunk of Ernest Giles’, ‘Australia Twice Traversed’, a book from the journals of his 1860s small-scale expeditions into Central Australia. Having spent time in the very area he describes, I find it all fascinating.

Just after 4 pm the sun was beaming in the small west window in the hut. Nice. But it didn’t last long before it disappeared behind the saddle where I will be traipsing tomorrow. With the fog gone I could see the thick snow up there.

Overall, the snow is not any lower than yesterday when I arrived so it will be interesting on whether there is much new snow up there or/and whether it is overly soft.

So, basically a day of meditation, err, not much. I needed that.

It’s 6 pm, 6° C in the hut and I stationed my hot dinner on my legs once again as I lie in my sleeping bag. Might be another early night.