Robin had a shuttle to catch at 2:15 in town, the hike was supposed to be 8 hours, but we figured if we could do most of the hike before the rain that was supposed to come in the afternoon muddied everything up, we could make it.
We left just after 7, but just after the first river crossing he realized he forgot his hat and ran back. The first section from the hut was straight uphill, an intense way to start the day, but a good warmup.
From there the trail descended into a valley carved by a river, then went up to the ridge, then descended into a valley carved by a river, then went up to a ridge. Repeat that several times and that was our day. Don’t get me wrong, it was fantastic, but when you are trying to get somewhere quick, that slows you way down. Robin is fast on the downhill and flats, but I’m fast on the uphill, so we established a balance where he would run ahead on the downhill and I’d catch up going uphill.
We got to the end of the trail at 12:30, about when we estimated. Just enough time to grab a beer and some food before his shuttle. I stayed in Whakapapa village, hoping to ski on Saturday.