Te Araroa day 91 – Mostly forest
March 3rd 2017
Hope Kiwi hut - Hurunui No 3 hut
16.8 miles
Total distance: 1329.1 miles
It was a good night, thankfully the two other girls were quiet and didn't get up early. We weren't on a tight time schedule today so we didn't bother with alarms.
We started at around 8:30am and it was surprisingly cold. We had looked up the forecast and we had been told by lots of people that it was going to be nice for several days, so we were hopeful that the clouds would burn off during the day. About 500 meters into the trail we had to cross a stream so we had wet feet to start the day, but after that it wasn't too bad and the streams were able to be hopped over on rocks and logs and patches of mud.
Today was flatish and it was a nice easy to follow track, mostly in the forest. With the clouds it was a nice temperature for hiking, not too hot, but they definitely weren't going away. Julia was off ahead so I spent most of the day on my own. As I approached the Hurunui hut the weather was starting to take a turn, the wind picked up and it started to drizzle. It wasn't that pleasant an experience to cross a big swing bridge with that weather, but it was better than having to cross the river!
We stopped at the hut for a spot of lunch and moved on fairly quickly. With only 6 miles to go there wasn't far to go to our destination for the day. The trail was mostly through the forest again and that was great because we were sheltered from the drizzle. There is a small hot spring on the trail and Julia was in it when I came by, but I didn't find it that appealing. Too many sand flies, and I didn't want to get wet because it was cold out. Apart from a few rocky and rooty areas it was easy walking and the last half a mile was a 4wd track. I half ran up the track because the weather became worse and the rain got heavier.
At the hut there were already a bunch of people there and a few more arrived after I did at 4:30pm. Tonight there are 3 nobos here and the rest are going south slowly which is why we have caught up with them, Sandy and Colin made it here too. There is 1 kiwi, 2 Americans, 1 German, 1 Italian, 1 French, 1 Canadian, 2 French Canadians.
A helicopter landed which is always exciting and we all ran out of the hut to take a look. A guy asked if there was room at the hut for three people and there was, they came in but I think they left again. We tried to watch the rest of LOTR but it was too noisy in the hut.
Not much else to say about today.