Waking in the middle of the night often leads me to an extended period of sleeplessness.
In this instance, I was gently rocked awake and noticed the windows rattling away. The floor was heaving.
Earthquake!
The thing with earthquakes, which happen regularly in New Zealand, is you can’t tell whether it is a nearby small shake, or The Big One at a greater distance.
In this case, I still had Internet connectivity and found it was an MM 6.1, some distance south of Rakiura.
At least the hut was at 38 m above sea level, so there was a limited chance of a tsunami. On the other hand, the next two huts are close to being tidal, maybe just a few metres above the high tide mark.
In the morning, the frost coated the picnic table, and the stars were shining brightly.
I was wondering if I had bought sufficient warm clothes, but a few layers and my old alpine puffer jacket compensated for my inadequate footwear, my jandals.
I left late, having failed to learn from the day before, blundering around in darkness.
I had felt the need to communicate with the outside world, or being the outdoor type, my indoor world of friends, and later chopped some wood, of which there had been none the previous night.
Actually, the frost was almost gone as I set off.
My twisted knee was some discomfort, but hopefully that would feel better as time went on.
The track has had some work done on it to meet Great Walk expectations. The worst bit, which used to be a lake, now has gravel building up the height, and you would never know the history. The track has a railway gradient, ie, near flat, so it is pretty easy walking. The only issue is that it has old and new sleepers that are mostly level with the ground and don’t always coincide with a comfortable gait. Also, there are drainage channels across the track that are bigger than a standard stride.
Small issues.
The weather was cool and mostly cloudy, although occasionally the sun popped out to offer some weak sun rays.
After my late start, the only thing was whether I’d make the five-hour DOC timed walk in daylight, particularly the last kilometre after the track drops down maybe 20 m on a slippery slope, fixed rope supplied, and then you wind your way through some swampland on greasy logs.
It was often gloomy in the forest, but when I burst out onto the hut clearing, I still had an hour of daylight to sort myself out.
Some DOC volunteers had cut firewood a few weeks before, but instead of lighting a fire, I was once again in my sleeping bag scoffing my dehy, although an hour and a half earlier than the previous night.
Getting horizontal at 7 pm makes for a long night.
A guide to the night’s accommodation: Wairaurahiri Hut
