We all slept like rocks, and woke up at about 8:30am. We were expecting rain and saw some nasty clouds that were moving in fast, we were thinking we should just pack up and eat some granola bars for breakfast since the sandfly's are so thick, but Paul said we had a long day ahead and it would not take to long to make oatmeal. So we stuck it out with the fly's and had a breakfast of tramping champions! Good thing too since we had a small climb to start the trail for the day it was climbing so much at the start we all started to wonder and debate if we were actually heading back up the trail, luckily we were on the right track. The trail was going to be mostly flat with a section of sidling. What is sidling? We had no idea, but we were sure to find out.
10min into the hike we came to a sign that showed us the "big slip" in 1984 they received record rain and in 24hours a side of the mountain came sliding down and parts washed all the way to Invicargill! It was impressive to see, and we were glad it was not raining.
After a couple of hours we made it to a trail maintenance hut and picnic shelter at Rocky Point, this is the halfway point to our hut. We stopped to have a snack and take our packs off for a few minutes, and we saw Craig and Roy the Australians. They asked were we stayed last night and we told them of our sweet spot, and not so sweet sandfly's. They laughed that we all crammed into one tent to have dinner together, and told us we had the better night, they had a full hut, it was hot, and about 15 of them were kids in rehab group for drug or alcohol problems with loud foul mouths. We ate our bars quick and hit the trail, told the Aussie's we'd see them at the hut.
Hiking along at a good pace we quickly found out what sidleing meant, part of the track had washed away (go figure) so DOC made a new one, steeply up a mountain side! Ugh, we are tired and do not want anymore steep climbs, after sidling two ridges, we finally hit the other side and had a very steep switchback trail back down to the original trail. This was a long 1hour detour and we all joked how we would just chance it at the next detour.
The forest was full of silver beech trees with big ferns in-between, it was like no forest we had seen before. We crossed about 30 wooden platforms of various length and height over marshy land or creeks before we saw the lake that our hut was on. We knew we were close, and 30min later we found our hut, with very tired feet. Paul and I decided that we would sleep on separate bunks tonight since they did not have the side by side platform ones!
We made our tea and changed, the guys were antsy and wanted to check out the lake for another possible polar bear jump. With not much else to do Kasey and I went to watch. There were lots of sandflys here as well, but the guys took off there shirts and made the plunge. They said it was a lot warmer than the river from last night, but warm by no means. Paul convinced me that it was very refreshing and I should jump in with him. I decided to go for it since I was feeling very grubby, took off my pants and went in! It was very nice, I did't get my head wet but the cold felt good on my tired body. After 2 min I was ready to get out, but the fly's were waiting, and I got a lot of bite's just getting dressed!
Back in the hut Roy, asked us if we already drank our wine for the night, we told him that we did not have any for the night, he could see the disappointment in our eyes, I think he was a little disappointed as well hoping for a chance to get in on some. He was surprised we jumped in the lake without it and explained how there must be something in the water making us goofy! I stayed and sipped tea and looked at old national geographic's from the 70's while the guys were playing american football with a miniature rugby ball in the grass outside.
The day before we started our tramp, 29 miners outside of Westport on the west coast, became trapped when the shaft collapsed. Our warden came in to give his talk, and told us that another explosion happened that afternoon and it was unsurvivable. This was sad to hear, he told us he had lived in that community for quite a few years and that it was a real shame. He also gave us a history about this walk, back in the 70's they wanted to build a hydro plant which would have covered most of the trail along the lake water, as a young kiwi he came down to protest this from happening along with many other kiwi's and they stopped it from being built. He said he is grateful to come full circle and have an opportunity to work in this area now some years later. He also told us how lucky we were to have no rain, but no rain means, our water supply had to be switched to the emergency supply which is a small creek up the mountain. He said the water was safe even though it had a green hugh to it, the hugh was from the beech leaves that fall into the water, he called it beech tea. He also commented that he was beginning to wonder if something else had leeched in when he saw a group of americans jump into the cold lake after drinking it, and then tossing around a small peanut, informing the guys rugby balls are much bigger in his country! We all had a good laugh!
We chatted with Craig and Roy most of the evening all happy to be in a spacious hut with very few sandfly's rather than a 2 person tent.
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