Day 65 - ridgelines

Te Matawai hut —-> Nichols hut 13km

We were all up early, ready for the next big climb. We were starting with a 500m ascent up to the peak of Pukematawai. The sky was cloudless and the sun almost over the mountains as I left the hut, out into the mud. I was in the trees for all of a moment before the path turned a steep upwards.

The trail was nearly impossible to follow. The tussock was over my head, so overgrown I hadn’t got a clue whether I was putting my foot onto rock, mud or a hole. Everything was soaking wet from the night’s moisture, so I was drenched after five minutes.

As I climbed higher, Te Matawhai hut became a speck in the distance, its distinctive red roof poking out through the trees.

Reaching the top after a couple of hours, I had about three minutes to admire the 360 degree view before a wall of cloud swept across the mountains obscuring the majority.

Lucy and Andy arrived 20 minutes later and we sat atop the peak watching the clouds come and go before it got too cold and windy to sit still any longer.

The rest of the morning we followed the ridgeline along the main range. The cloud thankfully lifted affording us glorious views as we clambered from knob to knob.

By the time I arrived at Dracophyllum hut for lunch I was covered in mud and my legs felt like they’d done a full days walk already yet I still had the same to cover in the afternoon.

A long lunch later and we were back out there, climbing out above the bush and along the ridgeline. Thanks to Andy for this video of me hopping along.

There were times this afternoon when the track totally disappeared. Slips in the rock face meant edging my way down near-vertical drops to then full on rock climbing back up again.

The track descended below the tree line several times and every time I was amazed at the trees, they were unlike anything I’d ever seen before - giant moss covered curly wurlys.

Around 6pm, Nichols hut came into view, perched lower down in the valley, it was a scramble down large boulders to get to it. A teeny, but wonderful 6 bed hut, Lucy, Andy and I had it all to ourselves.

We were now at almost 1200m and the temperature difference was huge. Andy put his fire making skills into practice which warmed the hut up amazingly as we all drifted off to sleep, my legs throbbing twice as much as they had the night before.