4 pm, and it was time to light the fire. I didn’t need a repeat of the previous night, when I was wet to my thighs and became super cold so that my threadbare sleeping bag wasn’t able to warm me up in a hurry.
I spent some of the day foraging for dry timber, of which there was some around if you knew where to look. The rotten detritus along Maling Stream wasn’t going to work. How about some standing dead wood in the forest?
As it turned out, that worked, and I could feel heat on my face while sitting on my bed 2.5 m away.
The hut sure got cold when the sun went behind a hill. The windows had serious frost in them in the morning, 3 mm, on the inside, of course.
I was having a rest day, so it was a slow start. Not a good night’s sleep, despite having six wool layers on, with my raincoat over the top. Two pairs of socks. My wool hat and pair of pants. Sadly, my once cozy alpine sleeping bag has lost half its feathers.
I worked out this was my sixth time in residence. I started at age 22 with my brother and a friend after we came over Three Tarn Pass from the Lewis Pass and headed to St Arnaud via David and Travers Saddles, plus Moss Pass. We had a great adventure.
I came back during the Sydney Olympics in 2000, although it was abnormally warm for September. The next time was coming over Three Tarn Pass again and onto David Saddle. Two years later, during my Te Araroa variation, I ended up with David Saddle again and down the D’Urville Valley on my way to St Arnaud.
Then came a full circuit of Nelson Lakes National Park from the Mount Robert car park via Tiramea, the Matakitaki, Three Tarn Pass, Lake Guyon, Paske and Begley Huts, before coming out at Connors Creek Hut.
No wonder it took me another eight years to return.
But today was one of the great days of my life.
Scenery. Solitude. Serenity.
What more did you need?
A guide to the night’s accommodation: Bobs Hut
