The rain came and went last night. A noticeable drop in temperature from those balmy, if not hot days in the Wilberforce Valley. That was certainly better for walking, although this trip would mostly be in forest.
I had been early to bed, a magnificent sleep, 10 hours, and I didn’t get out and about until after 7 am. And only away just before 9 am.
All uphill.
My plan was to get to Black Hill Hut, dump my pack, and continue on in the afternoon to Lower Salmon Stream Bivvy, then head back to Black Hill in the afternoon.
Well, you can have plans, but the day warmed up, I plodded on, and it involved a climb from about 500 m to around 1200 m.
Okay, not too steep, but continual enough.
When I arrived at the hut in its little clearing, I sat outside in the sun for a while, ate lunch, and when I organised myself for the daytrip, realised my body was not looking forward to a similar additional height climb, plus the drop-down to the stream.
The saying is: Tomorrow is another day.
I found I’d knocked out 17 K steps, and that sounded good enough to me.
Still, I climbed to get out of the forest and get a view in most directions with the Canterbury Plains, Mt Oxford, and the long and winding farm track I’d come in on yesterday all evident. Added some more climbing to get to the top of Black Hill, 1335 m, that I needed to cruise by the next morning when I would in fact go on that excursion.
That gave me time to communicate with the world as I had full Internet connectivity. I could make out individual houses that must’ve been more than 10 km away.
I was running out of puff for much more exploration, but I might as well continue on to see the places I had been planning on.
You get quite a different perspective on Canterbury from up there.
A guide to the night’s accommodation: Black Hill Hut
