The Rakaia River and some of the mountains I fly most of the times behind me. I’m glad I do the track SOBO (southbound) because for good photos you should always have the sun in the back of course (unlike in this picture)

Rachel walked up a bit with me (pink figure in distance in first photo) and took this photo of me, I was still happy here (what do I mean by that? keep reading!)

About 20 minutes later, another look back north

The cloud is slowly disappearing, good, makes for nicer photos, lovely terrain here!

I mean, this looks great! I can see why this is part of the Te Araroa

There is a lot of going up though, tough going at times with my 20 kg backpack, Turtons Saddle coming up

Looking back, again, I’ve climbed quite a bit already, in the far distance the Birdwood Range

The track continues to the end of this valley

This is about halfway along today’s track: the A Frame Hut (and toilet), Black Hill Range in the distance

I wonder why they call it A Frame Hut

Well, that explains it

Interesting rock (stone? limestone?) formations

The sun has been gone for a while now, my heels have developed not so much blisters but coin-size patches where the skin has been rubbed off, I should have broken in my shoes first! It’s rather painful. Luckily I see Comyns Hut in the distance! I can’t wait to get there and take of my boots

Damn! Before I get to the hut there is a river to cross and because of the heavy rain of the past few days it’s rather high, meaning I can’t just hop some stones to get across. I hate crossing rivers with my boots as they’ll stay wet and cold for too long. Luckily I brought some ‘water boots’: neopreen with a Vibram-like sole, unfortunately the cold water really bites my damaged heels, not a nice ending of the day

Half an hour later, finally at the actual hut, the smile is just for the photo, my heels feel awful and the hut doesn’t have a saw meaning despite there being a fireplace and some beach branches outside, I can’t light a fire, bummer!

A map of today’s hike, it was 16 km and took me 5 hours