Today- 28.3km from camp to Top Timaru hut

Total- 2515.0 km

Woke up to frost on the tent, and it was blinking cold. Gloves on, it was pack up time and we were off by 8am.

Had to take a snap of Myriam’s socks which were outside and frozen. My underwear which had been washed the night before were frozen to my tent.

It was really nice to leave and walk into the sun. The views were beautiful across the valley towards the Ahuriri river.

This river crossing is the largest unbridged crossing on the TA , and we took care choosing a place and crossed. It was pretty good , the last bit of the channel was a little stronger and deeper than I would have liked but we made it across no problem.

But, the scramble up the other side of the riverbed was more work than crossing the river. It was super steep and bare scree. But we smashed it , and kept hiking and began the Breast hill track.

Enjoyed strolling on an old 4WD track today, but boy it was hot. We came around a corner and recognized the couple in front, yay it was Marion & Francois!

We caught up with them and said hi, then kept going to Tin Hut where we stopped for lunch. Cheese and corn chips on a tortilla was on the menu for today, and it was super yum! Hard to believe I’ve eaten 1-2 tortillas every lunch for the whole of the TA.

After lunch it was hot and we had a mountain to climb. We stopped lots for water but kept a good pace, and said hey to Marion & Francois as they stopped for their lunch. Smashed the rest of the climb. It was over 800m in elevation and I was stoked to be at the top.

An incredible view of the southern Alps stretched out with Mt Aspiring peaking over the top.

We took a few pictures of the epic view.

Downhill was on a track that was nicely graded thank goodness, I wasnt really in the mood for any crazy shenanigans this afternoon.

The view was incredible down thevalley, and we made good time to the hut, arriving before 4pm.

Saw Wieke,Dan & Liv at the hut but they were pushing on a little so we will see them tommorrow hopefully.

Swim time , well more of a river dip due to how freezing the water was!

It’s always amazing having such a good wash in the river after a hot day. Showers are overrated haha.

Had a really pleasant evening with a bunch of hikers at Top Timaru hut.

Emeric showed me a bunch of his photos from the last week and they are awesome. What an epic week !

Top Timaru hut is a new 6 bunker, super nice and clean and cozy.

Also. Today we passed the 2500km mark! Cant believe it! But also, we didn’t even realise we passed it, oops.

Stay tuned for tommorrows adventures, I’ve heard the trail is really chopped up between here and Stody’s hut so we will see!!