Despite having decided to hang around for the day I was first up but the boys were in no hurry. Maybe they were tired, one was suffering bad cramp, another some arthritis. Eventually, one guy was particularly disorganised, I took a few photos of their group standing outside the hut and they were off. I went back inside for another cup of coffee. They seem bemused by my slow style of travel, they had half my time frame for their trip.

I finally looked at the map and sort of thought I might head on through to Fenella Hut in the Cobb on the official Dragons Teeth/Douglas Range route rather than dropping down into the Anatoki River Valley as I had initially been thinking. There is a bypass around the most strenuous/steep/dangerous section of the Dragons Teeth although from the reports in the hut book it seemed that section was mostly bush bashing.

I’ve eventually got my head around the various route options and that means I might even now have a plan.

Hooray.

After lunch I walked around the lake. That kinda sounds easy enough, well it was down one side. The outlet was interesting, remnants of a concrete dam that had raised the lake level about three metres to provide water for some gold mining endeavours nearby, with a 64 m waterfall immediately downstream.

The other side of the lake was not so easily traversed, I did some granite climbing and scrub bashing, good to test out my boots without having a heavy pack on. Eventually, a couple of hours later, I returned rather scratched up and sunburned from the glorious, if windy day.

The hut is great with a 10 m waterfall of some substance just out the back.

Yeah, a great place to umm, relax for the day.

+++++horizontal rule+++++

A guide to the night’s accommodation: Boulder Lake Hut

The hut, with the waterfall not so far away.  |  Boulder Lake Hut, Kahurangi National Park
← Day 7 | Boulder Lake Hut, Kahurangi National Park Day 9 | Adelaide Tarn Hut, Kahurangi National Park →