40km total 2374km
12 hours
Another highlight on Te Araroa trail! Today I am crossing stag saddle, the highest point of this trail. I leave late as usual stone hut and immediately dive my feet in the cold river. This makes me walk even faster. I reach royal hut after ninety minutes and carry on right after signing the hut log book. Another 90 minutes later, through some nice uphill walk, I reach stag saddle. It is a great and nice day and enjoy my alone time up there as I open my well deserved beer. I have some lunch and then decide to climb even higher to Bunzenberg through the scree slope. From thee summit I enjoy the cloudy views before walking down the long range leading to the next hut. The views on Mount Aoraki and Lake Tekapo are gorgeous!
I reach Camp stream hut early and decided to carry on a little bit further because a lot of people will be there that night. I decided to not carry much water and as I am looking for a stream I find out that there isn’t any, this means that I will have to walk further. And further. So far indeed that I walk down the Richmond Park until alost getting to the lake. I find a camp spot right next to boundary and set up my tent right in time for the sunset and the evening attack of the sandflies. This was probably one of the highlight of the trail despite my feet burning like hell from the trail.
