Today- 21km from Aparima Hut to Telford camp

Total – 2805.7km

Slept like a baby last night, warm and cozy in the hut. Starting to get chilly in the mornings now, so definately been having some sleep ins.

Had breakfast in our sleeping bags, and it was myself and the french boys Oli,Emeric and Paul left at the hut.

Latest start yet from a hut , 11am, but no worries. I love lazy hut mornings.

The track was a bit marshy this morning and then we entered the forest after a swingbridge.

The forest was really cool, mossy and ferns and really green. The terrain rolled up and down quite a bit and it took us just under 4 hours to do what doc said 6-8.

It was a little muddy in the forest but nothing too bad, I went straight through a mud patch thinking it was lshallower than it was, much to the amusement of the guys.

Arrived at lower wairaki hut around 330 and had a good lunch break, we all have so much food for this section, chips, chocolate, cheese, crackers so there was loads to eat.

Unfortunately Jill, who we met last night at the hut , who was stopping st this hut for the night came and delivered some terrible news about the terror attack shooting in Christchurch. Absolutely devastating.

With a bit on my mind, we now had a mountain to climb, and it was hot and sweaty work. When we got to the top we were engulfed in cloud, so no scenic view of Bluff as promised.

I had reception and got in touch with my family. A really horrible, sad day for NZ today. I was pretty upset and just took it easy on the way down.

We were in a lot of cloud and had to do some team navigation spotting the marker poles as we headed down the ridge.

It was a moody cloudy atmosphere, and the visibility improved as we dropped lower.

Took some funny snaps with the frenchies again.

Arrived at Telford campsite and found a sweet spot for camping. Took a brisk river dip and then we all collected some firewood and Emeric and Paul did a sweet job starting a fire.

Bush TV, is what we call fire in NZ, and it was an awesome evening , we had a beer we had carried, and Yerin was sharing around some whiskey she had brought.

So many snacks and marshmallows to roast, it was the perfect evening with friends around to be in their company after a day like today.

I’m so stoked on the awesome people I’ve met on this trip. Everyday is full of laughs and good times, it’s hard to believe we are so close to the end!

Passed the 2800km mark today. Less than 200km to Bluff!!