tramping new zealand

Strong winds and dense cloud was quickly propelled across the sky.

Not a great day for hours of ridge walking. After two days of hill climbing, my body was complaining as well, and it took the opportunity to tell me I wasn’t moving on today.

My brain, however, decided to see what conditions were like in an hour or two, and for once, I went back to sleep, and at 7 45 am, it was clear. I was staying.

The issue was the wind. The ridge is very exposed, so painful going in those conditions. To be honest, I was concerned about getting blown over; it was so fierce.

Blue sky appeared on occasion, but the wind was remorseless. I could cope with a day in a tiny hut at 1320 m.

I watched the Chinichloa tussock swish around both in front of the hut and on the ridge in the middle distance.

That encouraged me to get into some gardening at the front of the hut to trim and, at times, remove some tussock growing through the duckboards or adjacent to them or the hut. That took a while, and I needed another cup of coffee.

That was the morning done.

At 3 pm, I went for a walk and got Internet connectivity not far from the hut. That led me to catch up on the news, download some podcasts, and communicate with the outside world. I’m certainly not used to this connectivity in the numerous deep valleys of the South Island.