Today – 19.7km from Rocks Hut to Starveall Hut via Browning Hut and Hackett Hut.

Total -1846.3km

Huts huts huts. Loving all the cute huts. Had a lovely night in Rocks hut lasts night despite the snorers and the early morning 6am bag rustlers.

Had some breke, did some hut sweeping and cruised off to start another excellent day of tramping around 8.15am.

This morning was some undulating forest to Browning hut, with a cool bit out in the open where I got my first look at some of the incredible ridgelines around.

Hiked up to about 1000m [from Rocks hut which is about 800m] then there was a big descent to Browning hut.

After a stop at Browning and a splash in the streams, enjoyed the quick hour to Hackett hut where I ran into Laine, Ralph and Iben also enjoying some food.

This was another cute 6 bunker situated beautifully on the river.

When the day started, was not sure if I would stop at Hackett Hut or do the big 1000m climb up to Starveall in the afternoon.

Well, arriving at Hackett at 1pm, made sense to have a nice lunch break then get a big climb under my belt. DoC reckoned about 4.5hours so even if I took that time I’d still arrive in time for dinner.

The trail did the classic criss cross the river before starting a pretty intense straight up climb. 1000m over 4km, far out. The first hour after lunch was tough, and then I got my mojo back and got a nice steady pace going.

I tend to stop and rest and have heaps of water on these big climbs, because they’re not switchbacks or graded and can be a bit of a grunt in the heat of the day!

Treated myself to a sneaky snickers, and soon enough, arrived at Starveall Hut, what a spot!

Full house with 7 in the 6 bunk hut and 4 of us tenting outside. Unfortunately no bunk tonight but have a perfect little spot for the hubba to hang out – with an epic view!

Definately going to be a little cooler tonight, might get to zip up the sleeping bag!

Doing slightly more than I’d planned the last couple of days has set me up really nicely for the remainder of this section, with the days not too huge, but still good. Kind of every second hut.

Slightly shorter day ahead tommorrow to Old Man Hut via Slaty Hut, good to rest up before the big climbs thr following days. The weather is looking exceptional the next few days, so lucky with that. Its hot though, and one hut has a dry water tank , unfortunately also the hut right after climbing two peaks, so lots of water to be carried that day!