The new day dawned and it was another perfectly gorgeous day!
As usual I let most people bustle about and get on their way before I managed to get changed and have brekkie.
Todays hike is an 8.6km hike up to Pelion Gap and down into Kia Ora Hut.
The climb to Pelion Gap was about 300mt.
I was feeling it!!!
Pelion Gap is where you leave your packs to go mountain climbing if the mood and weather takes you. I had decided no side trips up mountains while I was on my own. I didn’t put in a day pack anyway.
I do love the darker forest paths where you have to navigate tree roots, mud puddles and rocks. Makes things nice and interesting.
I tell you – I was puffing and panting a bit!!
Finally, after many stops, I emerged out to the saddle between Mt Ossa and Pelion East.
The happy face of someone that knows its all downhill from here!
Easy now to step up the pace – esp on the smoother duckboards.
I was enjoying the sunshine and being surrounded by snow covered mountains.
It took quite some time to get down into Kia Ora Hut… always longer than what I think it is!
At last it came into view, so I sat down for some lunch and made some new plans.
There was a father and son already at the hut – everyone else was mountain climbing. And it was only 11.45am!
Seven hours is a LOT of time to kill when you didn’t have room to pack books or board games. (Assuming 7pm is an ok time to go to bed haha)
Another 9.6kms to Windy Ridge and the Bert Nichols Hut.
Hmmmm. No worries.
Back on with the pack and off I go.
The mud puddles were still in abundance:
A lot more evidence of the storms that went through the area too
Lots of shaded green tracks
After about an hour, I came out onto the old Du Cane Hut.
There is a nice big inviting platform in the sunshine – so time to give the shoulders a rest and soak up some vitamin D
It required a lot of willpower to get going again. So comfortable!
From here I put away the camera as it was pulling on my shoulders a lot – the extra kilo and a half begins to tell after a while.
I met some people at one of the waterfall junctions and climbed to the Du Cane Gap with them!
A LOT of people were at the Bert Nichols Hut. But its huge so plenty of room to find a spot to sleep.
I had managed to catch a cold (how annoying huh?) so sleep that night with a totally stuffed up nose was pretty thin. I think I went through half a roll of loo paper – most of it elegantly stuffed up my nose!!!
Someone kindly gave me some meds the next morning which really helped over the last couple of days! 🙂
Be back tomorrow to wrap up this adventure!!
Cheers!
