Having spent a day and a half in Royal Hut I was on the point of leaving, with pack donned, when I discovered the back of the door of the hut. A treasure trove! It was littered with the names of parties involved in autumnal droving runs, who obviously based themselves out of this hut, and included some proper New Zealand royalty.
One name was particularly noteworthy.
Harry Ayers is without doubt the most famous mountain guide in New Zealand's history, bar none. Today he is best known as the man who guided/taught Sir Ed to climb throughout the Southern Alps, but this is to only brush the surface of his accomplishments. A genuinely exciting discovery to see his name up on the door, and on VE day no less!The door had other famous names in New Zealand mountaineering, including Gottlieb Brawn-Elwert, who died while guiding then Prime Minister Helen Clark close to this hut (actually just the other side of Stag Saddle, where we had just come from).
Back to more prosaic matters. I'm going to have to start varying my diet soon. The unchanging texture of dehydrated food is starting to do my head in.
We're still in pretty big country, however with a fairly short day and not an undue amount of climbing, just a lot of up and down I expected an easy day, especially after coming off a zero day. 
I was surprised therefore to find the day tough going. My legs had plenty in the tank but cardio-wise I just couldn't get in the zone today. I've been struggling with meals a little, but have been making sure to get through most of my food. Nevertheless I wouldn't be surprised if that has something to do with it.
In any case we had a decent break at Stone Hut on the way past before pushing on reaching a saddle with fantastic views after a short but testing climb up a scree slope...
... it was then an easy few kilometres to our hut for the night, itself having fantastic views to the Rangitata River.
Tomorrow will be interesting. All the SOBOs we have passed in the last few days have promised hell and brimstone on the few kilometres down Bush Stream to the river, with tales of unfordable maelstroms abounding. Most New Zealanders we have passed have been more optimistic, so I'm expecting some excitement but no particular issues getting to the Rangitata.
Crossing the Rangitata, which I have been hopeful of doing, might be a different story. It is still significantly higher than it normally is this time of year, as a result of the recent cyclone. We did talk to one SOBO who crossed it today, but it was flowing swiftly at belly button height for him. With rain forecast for the mountains that's marginal to say the least. I promised Karen before starting that I wouldn't be fording anything deeper than waist deep. Crossing with Neil would make the crossing easier though, so we'll see how the chips fall in the morning.
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