Sunny day and the 6 am weather forecast for the complete South Island was quick.
Fine.
Hooray!! Long may it last.
No great hurry to leave, it’s a trundle down a long flat valley. In the end it was, err, after 11 am when I took off.
Somehow I managed to stuff everything in my pack poorly, making it look like it did on Day 1, ie, way over the high tide mark. Better sort that out in future.
There was some wandering up and down over the contours to get around some gorge areas. All very green, being for the most part on the shady side of the valley that runs mostly east-west and therefore is fairly shaded.
Some very recent deer sign spotted in a few places. Like I chased them away.
Also a view or two of the climb tomorrow. That looked as if you would get up in a hurry, ie, steep, although it was probably foreshortened. Well, that’s my hope.
The sun was out to dry my damp clothes when I made it to the cute hut, right next door to the river. Sadly after eight days everything, particularly anything to do with my feet, was starting to seriously pong. I’ll need to wash the full caboodle at some stage, providing it looks like I can get it to dry.
If the weather holds up I will give the bush bash up the hill a go.
If not, I’ll be heading downstream. It’s four or five hours to the gravel road. Problem then it’s about 25 km down a gravel road to the highway which is still about 4 km from Springs Junction, and there’s just the one farm down that road. Might not be a whole cavalcade of traffic. Hitching may not be possible.
At least there have been few sandflies along the way due to wet and cool conditions. But it seems there are a few sandflies here.
As usual I’m in my sleeping bag with some light still outside.
Early start required tomorrow, wherever I’m going.
A guide to the night’s accommodation: Mid Robinson Hut
