Day 93: Slaty Hut to Mt Rintoul Hut (1864-1878)

Thursday, March 2

I woke up around 6:30 this morning and Sara and I left around 8:15. The French hikers were still in the hut when we left but the Kiwi had left already. He had planned to hike to Old Man Hut and return to Slaty Hut for the night, before hiking out to his car tomorrow.

When we left Slaty Hut, the mountains were veiled in mist. It was a little tricky to see the poles marking the route but it wasn't impossible. Eventually I caught up to the Kiwi. He wanted to wait for the good view to come out so he was taking a break. If he hadn't stopped I wouldn't have caught him. He was quick!

I kept going and ran into a Kiwi lady hiking in the opposite direction. She's hiked in this area a lot and warned me not to go over Mount Rintoul if it remained this cloudy. It would be impossible to see the markers and the rocks would be dangerously slick.

Soon I met the rest of her group on the trail. The track changed from boulder hopping to a trail below the tree line. The mist still hadn't gone away, so when I reached the turn off for Old Mans Hut I wrote a note for Sara on some duct tape telling her I'd definitely be at the hut until 1 pm.

Around 11:30 I got to the hut and Sara got there a few minutes later. We decided we'd check the sky at 1. She took a nap and I watched a West Wing episode. The clouds hadn't lifted much so we waited until 2. The clouds were slightly lifting, so we decided we'd hike to the edge of the tree line and wait until the clouds lifted. If they didn't lift we'd walk the few kilometers back to Old Mans Hut and hope they were gone in the morning.

If it happened that we had to stay at Old Mans Hut tonight and it was still too cloudy to go over Mount Rintoul in the morning, we could still get out of the Range close to when we planned by taking an alternate route. There's a trail from Old Mans Hut to Mid Goulter Hut to Lower Goulter Hut. From Lower Goulter Hut we could hike over Bushy Top to get to Mid Wairoa. I had seen in the Hut book that one group of TA hikers had done this when there were clouds. Sadly almost all the Hut books on this trail were replace between October 2016 and this January, so I can only see people's comments from this season.

We left the hut at 2:30 and by the time we got to the tree line the clouds were lifting enough. We wouldn't get any views but we could see a few markers. Incase the clouds came back, we decided we'd stick together until we got back to a tree line again.

Between Little Rintoul and Mount Rintoul we saw about 10 goats! They're not native to New Zealand, so it's not the best thing that they exist here in the first place but I enjoyed seeing them scramble around the rocks.

As we got to the top of Mount Rintoul the clouds cleared for less than a minute at a tiny angle and then began coming back. Luckily we were only a kilometer and a half from the hut. We couldn't always see marker to marker but once we were over the high point the trail was mostly in scree and you could see a color change in the rocks where people had walked if you really paid attention. I slipped in the scree and bent my hiking pole, but at least it didn't snap like last time.

We got to the tree line and a few minutes later we made it to the hut. We were so happy we made it! Although it was only a little after seven, it was starting to get dark because of the heavy mist. Usually it starts to get dark between 8 and 8:30 here.

There were two northbound TA hikers at the hut already, Katie and Matt from the U.K. They said when they got to the hut, the view had been incredible. Now it was just mist. I stuck my bent hiking pole in a candle holder on the wall to try to bend it back, but I just bent the plastic tip. But at least when I hold it normal, the tip points straight down now. It'll work for hiking and holding up my tent until I make it to Christchurch in a week and a half.

Sara and I got our bunks ready and made dinner. After I was done eating I hung my food and my backpack. There have been mice in some of the huts. So far they haven't gotten my food and I'd like to keep it that way. I almost always hang my food and often hang my pack when I'm staying in huts.

A beautiful way to start the morning. The views are probably beautiful from here, but looking over the clouds made me feel like I was looking down from Mount Olympus.