weather on the boat was already nice :)
thankfully it was mostly clear when we started
Day 1: Glade Wharf to Clinton Hut: 5.8km, 1h34, from 200m to 230m
Day 1 was too short, just a short walk to the first hut.
the first stop for people who can't rough it even a little bit, was almost right off the boat
supplies get delivered by heli
this bird is shifty, hard to get good pictures of it
the robins are super curious and fearless
after checking me out, it came on my foot to look for worms in the holes :)
a ranger gave us a quick talk in the giant kitchen/common room of our huts
it doesn't look like much, but that's how they glow up at night. This cons insects into their traps
Day 2: Clinton Hut to Mintaro Hut: 20.1km, 6h09, from 230m to 600m
The next morning, the weather turned from bad to worse, we had non stop rain between moderate and very heavy. This put our gortex rental rain jackets to the test for sure. Views that day were quite poor and each picture meant getting your camera pretty wet:
on the plus side waterfalls were flowing everywhere
snow and boulder avalanche path
each hut has a helipad for deliveries and getting staff in and out. That's so cheating :)
New Zealand Weka flightless bird, roams around a bit like a chicken
remember that this is like snow in July
New Zealand duck, quite pretty
finally, we got to see what our crossing the next day would look like
Day 3: Mintaro Hut to Dumpling Hut via McKinnon Pass (1140m): 20.2km, 8h23, from 600m to 110m
The third day, finally weather was non rainy:
we're lucky we got views at the top
I happened to have some bird seeds :)
top hut/shelter for breaks or in caese of bad weather
the peak across had a few snow slides
Day 4: Dumpling Hut to Sandfly Point: 21.0km, 6h12, from 110m to 0m
The 4th and last day was smooth sailing. We had to get on the trail a bit earlier since we had to arrive at the boat by 14:00 to get back to civilization via a boat and bus.
this turned over rock could fit multiple people inside
and after 3.5 days, we got to the end :)