I woke up in time for sunrise, made coffee and walked to the beach. Unfortunately although it started really nice, the color didn’t stay.
When I walked back to camp I found my coffee bag on the ground, and the sugar and powdered milk were gone…. Wekas. I also took my backpack out of the tent, they stole my nut mix and my photography filters out of the side pocket. Thankfully I found the photography filters in the woods nearby. Wekas are basically a cross between a chicken and a flightless seagull, and like seagulls they’ll try to steal anything.
We headed up to the Castle Rock hut where we planned on staying, but we got there early and were unimpressed with the views so we had lunch and kept hiking.
There were disappointingly few views on the hike across the ridge, instead it was all in the trees. I can see why most people don’t hike this one, I knew it wouldn’t have the amazing beaches of the coastal track, but I hoped for more.
Then I was in a cloud with mist, but at least I wasn’t missing any views. We stayed at the Awapoto hut, which actually does have an ok view once the clouds cleared. There were a couple Kias (alpine parrots) hanging around.
