Today- 17.9km from Makahika outdoor centre to Te Matawai hut

Total-1543.1km

Lazier morning this morning, and walking to the bathroom, I saw Sarah’s tent! No way! But it it was!

So I hung around having breke and letting my stuff air out and dry and then she woke up and were reunited for the first time since Auckland!

The plan for me today was to head up to Te Matawai Hut, in the Tararuas. This section is challenging, steep, muddy and exposed to the elements, so forget all hopes and dreams of doing big kms.

Having done some NZ tramping before I am fairly well acquainted with slow going undulating terrain that requires a high degree of concentration. It can seem like a km is taking forever!

Today started with about an hours hike on the road to get to the trailhead, and then into it we went.

Although I have been surrounded by a couple of groups lately, I have been opting to sometimes walk by myself during the day. This gives me the flexibility to go at my own pace and take breaks when i want.

It has been interesting observing the last few days as I am in the mix of two fairly different tight knit groups. I have been hanging out with one of them for a while now as our days have aligned since Whanganui.

The trail cruised along for an hour before I stopped for lunch, and then it went litrally straight up a ridge. The kind of straight up where you crick your neck to see where the next orange triangle marker is.

Hot sweaty work, and then the mud made more of an appearance. I really enjoy this type of terrain because it is challenging, and you have to concentrate alot.

We had glorious weather for the afternoon.

Up the trail went and popped out on top of the ridge where it undulated along with spectacular views of all the ridges. Could see a small hut in the far distance but it wasn’t the one for us tonight.

Met a couple who were out doing a five day adventure , enjoying a break at a nice viewpoint.

The afternoon sped away and soon enough I was at the last junction for the hut telling me only half an hour to go. Yay!

When I arrived it was clean down time, muddy as legs! Then dinner and tea and toilet and chill.

The toilet was a solid 9 on the skody scale.

Sarah arrived with the others in the group that shes been walking with, and we had a good chat while she made her delish looking couscous.

It’s super nice to see her 🙂 and we have so much to catch up on!

Tommorrow is to Nichols Hut, only 12km but 8hours from here, and with the winds meant to pick up to gale force tommorrow evening, it may he a cosy night with 13 of us in a 6 bunker.