Te Araroa : Havelock to Tarn Hut

KM this section : 99
KM completed : 1869

Didn't see any dwarves.

Pelaros Bridge really doesn't have much going on, though it was where that silly barrel scene in the second Hobbit movie was filmed.  And it has a cafe, which in normal Kiwi fashion shuts at 5pm, so I am there at four, to buy various pies, cakes and chocolate.  I'm back for more at 8am next day too, and then off for a nice walk along the Pelaros river and up into the mountains.  No cycle tracks in this section, so how will the 'walkways' of South Island measure up?

Rocking the hut.

Cloudfall!

Not too bad it seems - yes, there is some crazy up and down, but I'm pleased to see some contour line following.  And actual maintenance!  In some areas a massive amount of work has been done to clear a path through what seem like acres of deadfall, fair play.  Better yet, these paths are going through terrain that rewards the walker, I climb up over wonderful open ridges, with views to the sea and mountains marching on the horizon.  After a convivial night at Starveall hut (hi, Nancy, Will and Sandra), I find blue skies above, but a blanket of cloud a few hundred metres below, the surrounding peaks rising through it like islands in a pale sea.

Summit of Mount Rintoul.

Of course there are mountains along the way, biggest of them Mount Rintoul (named for a nineteenth century editor of the Spectator), a little over seventeen hundred metres.  A tough climb, but not so hard as the guide seems to think... I'd looked at it, and thought I had some tough days planned, three over twelve hours.  In fact I stay under eleven hours, and still walk a bit further than planned.

Indeed, after the steep descent from Mount Rintoul I reach Tarn Hut for 6:30pm, time for a bathe in the eponymous tarn.  Seems I have the place to myself, might as well make the most of it then... I chop some wood, get a fire going in the stove, cook my mac 'n cheese on it and even warm some water to wash my clothes.  Living like a real mountain man here, oh yes.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.