Malween and I woke up and almost immediately took the wrong trail from the hut, but we realized it rather quickly and got back to the trail. Then the trail started climbing a bit. After a little while I started thinking that something was off, there was supposed to be a river crossing and we we’re hiking up away from the river. Sure enough we just hiked 30 minutes in the wrong direction. Malween got pissed and started swearing in French and running ahead. We already knew it was going to be a big day and this wasn’t a good day to add on extra miles, but what can you do? I kept my pace and let him run ahead.
After some time I came across Rebecca and Nina who were surprised and asked how I got behind them. “Didn’t Malween tell you?” I asked, but they hadn’t seen him. There’s a place where the trail was diverted because the river washed out the old trail. Sure enough Malween decided to give it a shot, but I believe he described it as “fucking horrible” (say it with a French accent for full effect). He eventually caught up to us and I managed to keep up with him until our lunch stop at the Waitewaewae hut.
From there the path climbed steeply up the other side of the river. I mean crazy steep. I’m usually strong on the uphill, but I found myself winded and running out of energy (I probably wasn’t eating enough). I have to say I was glad to be going up that way instead of down, as tough as it was, I’d rather go up really steep sections than down them.
We knew there would be a lot of people at Nichols hut, there was a group we camped with in Levin that were leaving the same day we did but going south and we talked about how we were going to all meet up in the middle. We ran into a bunch of familiar faces: Austin and Thomas, Lucas, Leon and others. They informed us that there was a group of thirteen people planning to stay at the hut going SOBO, and there are four of us planning on the same going NOBO, and the hut sleeps six…. you can see the potential issue. That gave Malween even more mental fuel and he raced ahead even faster.
When I got above the trees I was awarded with amazing views of the mountains I was about to hike as well as the ranges around me and the sea to the west. I could see Malween, just a dark speck, far ahead running along the ridge and up Mt Crawford.
I took a couple minutes at the top of Mt Crawford, just to enjoy the view. I knew I needed to get to the hut if I wanted to stay inside, but the views were so fantastic.
Malween was the first to make it to the hut and he grabbed two mats so that potentially all four of us could squeeze in. I was the sixth person there. At the end there were 12 of us at the hut, 10 inside and Rebecca and Nina decided to pitch a tent outside.
