Day 15 - Carey's Hut to Taipo Hut, 18.3km, 5 hours 30 minutes

Looking up the Mararoa Valley, with the Greenstone Valley at the far end.

We awoke to a squally day, a weather pattern that would endure throughout the day. Eli had lost some billtong to the mice in the night, but not enough to stop him continuing to eat it today.

There was a short early climb before arriving onto flats above the lake. This didn't last for long before we bid farewell to the beautiful Lakes Mavora with a Caleb pose.

The route then opened out into a stunning river valley, the Mararoa, which we followed for the rest of the day. We quickly happened upon a hut which we stopped at for morning tea.

Continuing on, the valley opened out into one of those huge, wide, glacier carved valley's that this part of the country is well known for, similar in many ways to the better known Matukituki valley.

Stephen's feet have been going better today, and Eli hasn't experienced any ill affects at all.


... and so to Taipo Hut. There's a really good swimming hole here, but with the weather I'm not enthused to use it, alas.



The hut is bang on the 300km mark, so another milestone, and now only a 1000km to go!

Once in the hut I noticed that my pack had suffered another breakage, this one more serious, with the whole top of the internal frame breaking and coming away. It won't stop me getting to Queenstown tomorrow, but will probably mean an extra day in Queenstown while I get a suitable replacement.