Day 83 - tradie mouse
Hacket hut —-> Slaty hut 11km
We were the last ones to leave the hut this morning at 8am. Grant & Annie and Andy & Sam had their morning routines down to a tee - we needed their secret.
The trail followed the creek first up. With no specific route to follow, we picked the best boulders to bounce over, the shallowest bits of water to wade through until we reached the big orange triangle telling us to get out of the riverbed.
Then it was time for another climb. This time up 870m in elevation to reach Starveall hut. No photo I took does the incline any justice - but it was steep. And long. Real long.
First through the beech forest…
…and then out, above the bush line into open forest.
And then into the clouds. We’d heard the view from Starveall hut was stunning, but we were (once again) in a white out.
We sat outside the hut eating lunch as we tried to dry out from the sheer amount of sweat we’d both emitted on the climb up. Annie & Grant were eating in the hut and trying to avoid a mouse running around so we didn’t much fancy eating in there.
With only a two and a half hour walk to Staty hut and our home for the night, we were in no rush to set off again, but with the cloud closing in around us even more, it was starting to get very cold. We rugged up and set off into the whiteness.
The track, compared to the morning, was fairly easy going, taking us along the shale slopes and rocky ridgeline of Mt Starveall.
It was quite fun not being able to see anything. We didn’t want everyday to be like this but to walk in the clouds added a pretty special element to the day.
The wind picked up as we climbed higher and pushed us sideways across the tops. The ridgelines here were nothing like the skinny edges of the Tararuas so we we found it more amusing than scary as the wind pushed us around.
We climbed down below the clouds as we neared Slaty hut and we got a momentary glimpse of the mountain tops we might have seen on a finer day.
Annie, Grant, Andy & Sam were already in the hut when we arrived and I took a bunk with them. Josh set up the tent outside - it had gotten pretty warm with all six of us in the hut the night prior and he’d not slept very well, he’d hopefully sleep better in the coolness of the tent.
Turned out we all should have camped.
Not an hour after dark, we all startled to a jack hammer against the cupboard door in the hut. A mouse, or a rat, or a tiny tradesperson was trying to gnaw its way through the wood. There was already a metal bucket blocking a large hole that had been successfully gnawed, so we knew it could be done and would likely be very persistent. I shoved my earplugs in and tried to ignore it but it was louder than any earplugs could prevent. Annie & Grant decided the only way to shut it up was to try and catch it and opened the cupboard door. The tradie mouse/rat was too clever and evaded all capture, running free around the hut, jumping on our bags and generally have a jolly good time. I drifted in and out of sleep as various other capture attempts were made throughout the night. I didn’t want to see it as I knew it would prevent me going to sleep slash ever sleeping in a hut again so I faced the wall and tried to block it out as best as I could.
Josh slept wonderfully in the tent, blissfully unaware of any commotion at all.
