Day 102 - feels like minus five
Hope Kiwi Lodge —-> Hurunui hut 18km
The weather forecast for today had been very changeable over the last few days. Rain, then no rain, then snow, then no snow. It’s impossible to keep up, so for the most part we have to just press on and hope for the best.
It was pretty chilly when we set off, but dry, so we paced it through the open paddocks beyond Hope Kiwi hut hoping to get into the forest before any rain came - we just about made it.
The forest provided much welcome cover from the rain as we plodded along through the trees, clambering over a heap of heavy windfall.
By our mid-morning snack, the rain had stopped and we were making plans to walk to Hurunui hut for lunch, and Hurunui no 3 hut for the night.
Lake Sumner came and went without much notice, the trail through the forest had hidden it from view for most of the morning.
At 11.30am the rain started up again along with an incredibly icy wind. We were back in the forest again but it didn’t really matter, both Josh and I were soaked to the core within half an hour. We raced along as quickly as we could. Head tucked right in, only my eyes moved to follow the trail markers - the smack of the windchill in my faces enough to make my lip quiver.
The trail took us back out into the open, the perfect time for the hail to start. We couldn’t see any markers anywhere and now with ice balls hammering down onto my head, it broke the last bit of motivation I had left to keep going. Josh came up behind me to provide some shelter and I just about had enough dexterity in my fingers to get my phone out and check the GPS. There was a huge group of cows sheltering together under a tree and of course, the GPS said we needed to head straight towards them. We reached a sign that said 45 minutes to the hut and motivation partly restored, we powercharged it across the paddock, across a swingbridge, through a final bit of forest until we finally saw the hut in clearing up ahead.
“There’s a fire going!” Josh exclaimed as we got closer, the smoke bellowing out into the rain above. I could have cried. David, a hunter had been camping up in the tops but had come down to the hut to escape the weather this morning. After stripping off all our soaking clothes we walked into the toastiest hut imaginable. I hadn’t wanted to carry on to the next hut with the weather the way it was, and now I’d felt the warmth of the fire, i definitely didn’t want to.
Grant and Annie arrived half an hour later and they had exactly the same idea. We all bunkered down.
Around 4/5pm-ish, the sky cleared up and the clouds lifted to reveal snowy mountain tops all around the hut. No wonder we were so cold. Grant had a tiny thermometer that told us it was zero degrees outside and his inreach had the wind chill at minus five. I was now even more grateful for David and his legendness for keeping the fire going.
We comforted our bellies in the evening with a rehydrated apple and berry crumble which honestly almost made the whole day worth it. How had we only just discovered dehydrated desserts?!
