Waiau - Upper Travers Hut.

7km, 4hrs overcast.

Today was a light day, I feel a bit like jumping out of my skin because I'm worried about the pass and the weather.. of course we could skip this hut and march on to the next but it will mess up all our bookings and honestly I think we all do need a bit more rest.

The mornings walk up to the hut was magical. We took a short detour and a steep climb to look at Travers falls. (Well I climbed down). The second photo is my vantage from the bottom back up where you can just see Patrece.

There was a sign next to a stream that there was a 30min detour to a bridge in case of high water... I'm glad that the stream was pretty low because there was a bridge under a lot of boulders near the sign. I'm sure it has been replaced but it struck me as comical. I would hate to make the detour abs find that it is the same bridge.

The path today seemed to be through a fairytale garden. With the mossyest undergrowth in places and the most gorgeous little plants. The birds were super friendly as well, coming down to peer at us.

Once we got close to the hut we popped out of the treeline and wow! The tussocky meadow, the flower lined stream, the rocky peaks still sporting patches of snow. Just unbelievably picturesque. And not many sandflys!

Plenty of time this arvo to do a bit of washing in the stream, Karen is doing some painting and I plan to read a book. It's a hard life...Read more