Waiau - John Tait Hut

25.5 km 7.5 hours overcast with some sun.
The path to lake head hut skirted lake rotoiti the whole way and was almost completely flat through beautiful beech forests. It was so nice on the feet compared to the boulder clamboring we had been doing the last few days in the Richmonds.

We arrived at lakehead hut at about 11 which put us bang on the estimated time which was good as we had another 5 hours to reach John Tait hut.

From lakehead it was through beautiful meadows surrounded by crazy tall mountains, some with a little sprinkle of snow on top. There were patches of forest between the meadows where we saw a family of Robins-2 adults feeding a young one that got really close.

The track was really easy with a couple of swing bridges and board walks.

We got to the hut right about when we thought we would. Washed in the cold stream then enjoyed the company of some really neat hut mates and warden. Despite threats no one stayed up past 8:30 to ring in the new year apart from the family with a ~7yo girl that showed up at 9:30pm clearly having had a big day.Læs mere