TA Day 49

TA Day 49: Wednesday 5 February 2025

Maitland Creek / Motueka River - Northwest of Mt Ellis

We were surprised to wake up to a COMPLETELY dry tent. First time!

We both were a bit nervous about what was to come today. Ever since we started we heard about how tough the Richmond's would be, and now we were finally here.

We had breakfast by a stream and sat down by some rocks. The morning was slow. Calm. Quiet.

We continued a little further, and was shocked once we arrived to Porters Creek Hut and met a big group of 10 SOBOs! They seemed exhausted and ready to get out of the Richmond's. Their shoes were muddy, and we wondered what would come later.

Going to Hunters Hut felt like it took forever, and it was a little muddy but not that bad, but we started to doubt if we would reach the camp spot on the mountain that we had set as a goal for today. Around 17 we left the hut, and we started to look for camp spots almost immediately, but there weren't any good ones so we kept going.

When we were at the last river we filled up all our water bottles and decided to push on the last bit. It was tough. After the river we hiked straight up in steep scree and our calves burned. 400 metres of elevation in 2 km. The last part was luckily a little less steep and we went further and further up into forest and fog. All was silent. No wind.

We arrived at the top and the camp spots were perfect. Flat and mossy.

Up here it felt like we were the only ones in the world. This camp spot was amazing, the only downside was the lack of water, so we cleaned ourselves with some of the water we had brought up and our trusty Wettex cloth.

We had survived our first day in the Richmond's. Yes, the terrain was slow, but so far it seemed to be nothing that we had not experienced before already.

Today's:

Distance: 18.46 km

Ascent: 1696 m

Descent: 1103 m

Tent nights: 34/49

Weather: Cloudy and sunny and hot. Fog in the evening