Day 94: Mt Rintoul Hut to Top Wairoa Hut (1878-1900)

Friday, March 3

Sara and I woke up at 6 and got ready by the red glow of our headlamps. We wanted to start our day at 7. When the weather is hot and sunny, that's my favorite time to start hiking. It's bright enough to see without a headlamp but it's just before sunrise. It usually gives you a few hours of hiking before it really gets warm.

It was a misty morning, but between cairns and pole markers we made it over Purple Top and back to the easy to follow trail below the tree line. Purple Top was the highest point of the day so it felt good to have gone up and over it already.

When I got to the turn off for Tarn Hut I made an arrow out of sticks and drew a smiley face in the dirt so Sara would know I had definitely gone down to the hut and hadn't continued on the trail. Sara got there and we left a little before 11.

I ran into a Danish TA hiker headed northbound. He was stopped for a snack break. It was a nice trail but the last kilometer to Mid Wairoa Hut was pretty steep and I fell twice. Hard enough that I thought my knees would be bruised tomorrow. Oh well. I got back up and reached Mid Wairoa around 1:30.

Sara wasn't sure if she wanted to hike past Mid Wairoa Hut today, so I left at 2 so I could get to the next hut by 7 even if it took me as long as the trail notes predicted. The trail from the hut was nice and easy. It was next to a beautiful river and there were so many tiny waterfalls flowing into it. The trail may have been more difficult if it was raining and the rocks were slippery, but that wasn't the case. And I only got my toes wet on half the river crossings. On the other half I was able to walk from dry rock to dry rock.

As I got closer to Top Wairoa Hut clouds started rolling in and a cool wind started picking up. Luckily by the time I got to the hut around 5:30 it hadn't started to rain. I went down to the river to get water and set my bed up the way I like it. Then it was time to make my gourmet dinner of a ramen noodle packet (they call them 2 minute noodles here), a tuna packet and some dehydrated veggies. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but the ramen noodles in New Zealand are much better than the American ones. They always have 3 to 6 different unhealthy sauces and seasonings to mix in as opposed to the one seasoning packet in the American ones. The fish packets here are amazing too. They have tuna and salmon ones with flavors like Thai Coconut. Yum!

While I made my bunk and dinner the wind really picked up. Instead of a stove, this hut had a chimney and it rattled like crazy in the wind. It was a little terrifying but at least I was in a hut and not a flimsy tent. As I finished my dinner and was about to lazily lay in my bed and watch West Wing around 6:30 or 7 Sara arrived. I was so happy not to be in the spooky windy hut by myself!

We talked for a bit and she got water and made dinner. The wind kept blowing. Rattling the chimney and moving something under the hut that kept loudly banging the floorboards. We were pretty pooped again today, so we went to bed after dinner. I just had to watch a few episodes of the West Wing before I fell asleep.