I was away at 9 am on a cloudless day with a huge frost.
Man, it was cold.
Mornings like these need a breakfast bucket of porridge and a couple of mugs of coffee to crank you up.
I left wearing a short-sleeved wool T-shirt, a long-sleeved one, a thicker wool zipped cardigan, a Polartec vest, another wool cardigan with hood, and my raincoat over the top. I didn’t remove any of these layers during the day, although I had removed my alpine down jacket and wool pants before departure.
I also wore my wool beanie and my winter softcell tramping pants.
I felt like Father Christmas.
With the pack on my back and in motion, I quickly warmed up, without ever overheating.
During the day, my feet got wet, but I knew I had to cross Maling Stream just before the hut, so there was no point in trying to keep them dry.
The section past Burn Creek was the most attractive forest, although I did get to examine it closely when I came off the track going up to Pretty Bridge, and spent half an hour floundering around trying to find it again.
After that, the forest really thinned and wasn’t overly pretty.
Down at the Forks Flat, I saw a couple of deer at a distance. Then, going through the forest close to the river, I twisted my left foot awkwardly and decided to change my destination to the closer Bobs Hut.
I felt that I could try to cross the Matakitaki River and use the flagged track on the other side to bypass the 20-minute walk upstream and another 20 minutes back.
That worked out, as the river was just over knee-high and it doesn’t flow swiftly at that point.
It was 5 30 pm, officially sunset, when I hit the final broad river flat and scooted over the frozen tundra to get to the hut.
Fortunately, I knew where it was located and could just make it out in the gloom, but that final kilometre took half an hour. Of course, I had to cross Maling Stream, which was knee-deep, so I was pleased to finally take my pack off. No point in making a fire, so I made dinner quickly and jumped into my thread-bare sleeping bag to eat it.
Lights out quite early.
A guide to the night’s accommodation: Bobs Hut
