tramping new zealand

After the big haul of yesterday afternoon in the heat, today was clearly going to be more leisurely.

No hurry at all.

A sleep in, until 6 am, and a slow breakfast. Some deep reading of the hut book from 1989 with a few familiar names popping up.

It wasn’t until 11 am that I finally was organised to leave. By then, the sun was out and beating down.

It probably took twice the time than if the weather was drizzly, as I stopped in the shade of the mountain beech trees where encountered and took the weight off my shoulders.

Quite different from yesterday when it was go, go, go all day. Even lunch was just the time to eat a couple of muesli bars, and usually when stopping, I kept my pack on.

It was around 10 km for the day, with a bit of climbing to get up onto the Mounds of Misery, but from Bull Creek I was on a formed four-wheel-drive track and it took the path of least resistance, even if it may have been longer.

I’ve been up the Poulter River, a parallel valley to the west, some time ago, so it was interesting to see the east side of the range.

The Mounds of Misery were someone else’s assessment, not mine. It was somewhat reminiscent of the countryside after gold miners had moved on. Most of the tussock had been burnt off, and more low pasture grass and Hieracium were adjacent to the road.

In the last kilometre, with no track marked on the map up to the hut, I just made a beeline for where I thought the hut probably was, in a small tree gully.

My tracking skills proved okay as I was only 20 m off the direct line.

It’s a very familiar New Zealand Forest Service S70 six-bunk hut, and I must’ve visited over 100 of them now. More than 200 were built in the South Island in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Because this one is tucked out of the way, it hasn’t been used much, and a 2016 renovation has meant it’s in generally fine condition.

I enjoyed having more space than in the last two compact nights and a bunk I could actually stretch out on. Few sandflies.

The stream had almost dried up, but had a short flowing section 100 m upstream, so a complete lack of water issue was averted. That would have been a real issue as an alternative source was a long hike away.

My lightweight hiking shoes did not respond well to the stream and gravel travel yesterday and one has a significant rip in the fabric. It’s led me to abandon the idea of too much in the way of side trips. All of a sudden, my body is feeling exhausted as it has the right to do after the last nine weeks of vigorous exercise.

I’m happy enough to head for home, even if it means some of these valleys will not be explored.

Time for dinner and an early night.