TA Day 21

TA Day 21: Wednesday 8 January 2025

Stodys Hut - Timaru River, north of Mt Melina

This morning was chilly. Wind swept down the mountain and past our tent like some kind of wind tunnel. We were very tired this morning, and slept through the alarm.

The day didn't start off very well because the first km had incredibly steep terrain. Definitely the slowest km on the entire trail so far, as we went 1,5 km/h for well over 6 km. It reminded us a lot about the tough terrain we'd had on Stewart Island and Kim didn't like it at all, and was feeling so upset about the slow pace - we'd never get to the hut!

We read some comments on FarOut and there was an option to walk part of the way in the river instead of following the trail, so we decided to give it a go.

We passed a waterfall, went up from the water, and once we came down to the water the next time, we followed the river. This was a good decision, and from here we hiked a lot faster. We followed the river all the way to the hut, where we paused for a proper break. Our first proper break today. Here we met the girl, Lulu, and her father again, as well as a bunch of SOBOs. All of them were planning to stay at the hut, but we wanted to get a little further, especially since we'd only hiked like 15 km or so...

So after a toilet and dinner break, we kept going.

From here, the trail followed something that looked like a 4WD-track which was just wonderful. Not steep and the views were beautiful. We could easily keep a tempo of 5 km/h here. We really felt like we deserved this after the crappy trail earlier today.

Today's:

Distance: 20.63 km

Ascent: 974 m

Descent: 862 m

Tent nights: 13/21

Weather: A little cold and windy, then cloudy and sometimes sun coming through