I woke up to a calm lake and a nice sunrise. I took my time packing up as Jayden is less of a morning person.
The walk around the lake was really nice, there were fantastic views!
After that we followed the road further along the lake, we could already tell it was going to be a hot day again. We stopped for lunch in the shade beside a stream that we were following up into the mountains.
After lunch we threw in headphones for some motivating music. Within the first half hour I came across a fantail (bird) I wanted to photograph, so I reached back to the pocket I keep my zoom lens in and grab… nothing. It’s empty. Luckily I knew I had it at the lunch break spot, so I dropped my pack and ran back to get the lens. Sure enough, it was sitting right where I had taken my pack off… phew.
Now I was super far behind Jayden and trying to catch up *huffs and puffs*
I finally caught up with Jayden when he stopped to take a break at a stream.
After We got going I realized there was another hiker napping just 50m further downstream and it happened to be Pierre! I didn’t want to wake him and figured I’d see him later, but he probably camped before me, because I didn’t see him.
Later we came across Holger who was camping 3.5 km from the river, he thought about crossing it, but decided to do it in the am. Jayden and I decided to try and do it while we knew it was crossable (the NOBOs we had talked to said it was easy earlier in the day).
The Ahuriri river was certainly sizable. The first place Jayden tried to cross was too deep, but then we went a little southeast where the river divided around an island and were able to cross ok with the water above the knees but not too far.
We camped on the other side.