It wasn't yet dawn when I got up, the sky just starting to lighten in the east. I was determined to break the crux of the climb before the day heated up too much - I'd be sweating enough as it was.
So after a quick breakfast and packup I was on the trail by 6.30, pack and, more importantly, left heel feeling great.
It was steep country, but with an open hillside leading onto a wide ridge, it was choose your own adventure stuff. I responded with shallow zigzags to lessen the slope and within 45 minutes had the first 300 meters (the steepest part) done, before the sun hit me. As an added bonus once I hit the ridge leading to the summit I was hit with just about the perfect breeze to keep me cool. All in all a great day so far!
Like what tends to happen when you're climbing mountains the view just kept getting better the higher I went, resulting in many photographs of largely the same scene.
Towards the top the ridge narrowed, a more direct route dictated. Ironically, even though less steep than earlier, this probably made for tougher going. Nevertheless the top beckoned. A flock of magpies and a stunning view were waiting for me on the summit. I could just make out the sweep of Colac Bay away in the distance. It was satisfying to say the least to survey the distance travelled in the last few days.
Once over the top it was into the bush for 4km of meandering down to the Lower Wairaki hut, reached after 4 hours from the campsite, and the normal stop point for the day.
However I was keen to get on to the next hut to sample the wonders of the Apirama Deep, the name I have decided to bestow on this as yet unseen swimming hole further on. Even so I had a break here for a couple of hours.
As I was sunning myself on the hill an Irish fella sauntered up and introduced himself. He and his girlfriend are NOBOs and were camping down the hill by the river. Apparently a refreshing place to throw yourself. I needed no second invitation and was down having a dip a couple of minutes later. Then back to the hut for a boil up.
2 hours into my second stint through to Apirama hut the big climb this morning suddenly caught up. The fires went out, and from that point the afternoon was hard yakka. This was unfortunate timing, because I was about to embark on the most soul destroying track I've ever been on.
Some background. On a 1:50000 topomap the relief lines are drawn for every 20 meters of height. If your trail is running perpendicular to the relief lines, you're going to be either climbing or descending. If your trail is running parallel to the relief lines, you're in for a pretty easy time of it. Here's the relief map for part of yesterday afternoon's walk.
It looked pretty easy going, hence the decision to push on to the next hut. However the track was actually a never-ending series of what seemed like flood tracks. Each was 20-25 meters high, each started immediately after the previous one had been descended. The thing, is because of their height they didn't show up on the topomap and they were completely unexpected. I stopped counting how many once we'd done 30. At a conservative estimate that's an unexpected 600 meters of extra climbing.
Somewhere along the way I managed to lose my hat, which was tucked into my chest belt. It was probably as a result of throwing the pack off my back exhaustedly. In open country this would be a bit of a disaster, but I've largely got bush to Te Anau. <Update: Neil's just caught me up, and found it in a stream - it must have dropped out while I was refilling bottles. Australian Superman!>
Not far before the hut I had a bit of a morale boost. The second major milestone, 200km! Somewhat manic smile ensued.
And so to the hut. But not before seeing the famed swimming hole. Pack down, boots off (after spending a tortuous couple of minutes sorting out my double knotting), then into the river with everything else still on. Bliss!
A rest day tomorrow, so looking forward to a lot more of that. More on the hut and swimming hole tomorrow!
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