27km total 2163 km
10 hours
Today is a stone day. After I left the nice kiwi hut, soon there is a big river to cross. Fortunately there are two smaller bread upstream that I cross separately. After the crossing the trail disappears for a while and I am.walking basically in older riverbeds. It is harsh on the feet. I finally find the trail back through some bush before loosing it and starting to fight my way through spiky bush to get back to it. I finally found the flood trail but it is in a so bad condition and going steeply up and down over and over again that I stick to the river bed. I saw a possum mom with it child on the way. It is hot in the sun but I make more progress. I finally reach Murchison bridge. It is already two in the afternoon and the trailhead sign says 8 hours to deception hut and nine to goat pass hut. I hope that I will be faster than this. I start to walk up on the side of the river before having a lunch break. The directions are well marked but it is still basically getting up in the river. As it gets steeper the rocks gets bigger so sometimes even a little bit of climbing is required. I easily reach deception hut after 4 hours of tramping and decide to carry on to the last bit to goat pass. I love waking in the riverbed as it is refreshing but also demanding in terms of concentration. I then reach the hut after a last steep uphill bit and directly get in the water to cool down and wash myself. I spend a nice evening and already dream a little bit of the burger waiting for me at Arthur’s pass.