Start: Porters Creek Hut
Finish: Top Wairoa Hut
Distance: 20km
Today was a rough day. From the hut it was pretty slow going up and down over a few saddles until Hunters Hut where we stopped for a nice lunch.
From here it was a steep long climb up to Mt Ellis and man it was hot and my back is sore. There is no relief from the sun or from my aching back and it isn’t long before Jacqui leaves me behind and Nick and Zara catch me up.
When we get to the top I have a well deserved sit down while enjoying the spectacular view.
I was doing the maths in my head for the 6-bunk hut and knew that we had to try beat Nick and Zara there if we could but soon after we set off again as we were crossing a scree slope I started to feel a bit woozy and light headed so needed to stop and sit down again.
I had some more snacks and Nick gave me one of their hydration tablets and soon I was ready to push on.
Jacqui told me there was only 2.5km to go and I hoped we could smash it out in an hour but little did I know how wrong I was.
The first part of the descent was through steep tussock that had lots of hidden holes, which really slowed us down. The next part of the descent was over huge rocky boulder fields which were super sharp and unstable and this slowed us down even more.
We both started getting grumpy and frustrated and started swearing heavily at the track. This was made even worse when a group of 3 ran past us and we knew we’d definitely be camping.
Slowly we made our way down the steep hill, watching as the bright orange hut inched closer and closer until eventually I made it.
I stumbled in the door to see Ed packing up his stuff, he was gonna camp, which meant there was a spare bed! Nick and Zara were top and tailing and when Jacqui arrived we decided to just do the same.
I had to sit and breathe for about 30mins before I could find the energy to move and sort myself out. Not sure how I’m gonna go with another big day tomorrow but hopefully I’ll be full of energy in the morning!
