Motatapu Alpine - Highland Creek Hut

15km in 7hrs

The track started through farmland, with gates in the fence to climb through. However the meeting at the bottom of the fence wasn't obvious so the first bruise of the day was Karen opening the gate and attempting to walk through the wire at the bottom.

The path then took us unexpectedly into a lovely beech forest. Even in the shade of these trees we could tell it was shaping up to be a scorcher of a day. Too soon we were out of the forest and wrestling through bracken enveloped paths fully exposed to the sun. The first wet t-shirt happened at about 10am. There were several subsequently because they died in about 15 minutes.

We arrived at Fern Burn hut just after 11, matching the reported time perfectly. Even though it was a bit early we opted to eat lunch on the porch out of the sun with a backrest.

The afternoon was a bit of a killer. It was all completely exposed and super duper hot. My new boots grabbed at the heel and I started to get blisters on the way up to the saddle but I put some patches on them at the top and they didn't bother me on the way down.

I had packed about 2l of water and my 750ml electrolytes to get me there today but I discovered I was completely out at a little stream about 3km from the hut so I filled up 800ml and drank that too.

When we saw the hut there were already 3 tents up around it so we were bracing ourselves for a full hut but no - there were plenty of beds, we all even got bottom bunks. I made too much dinner again... it seems to be a theme for me - making too much and having to struggle through even though it's delish.Læs mere