24th December, Ta Araroa 84 days
Mid Wairoa Hut 1893km to Hunter hut 1910km
Here I sat in the Mid Wairoa hut reading my notes for the next section, I’ve read then a couple of time now as its the section of the track i haven’t been keen about. Today is going to be a day of many river crossing and from what I’ve read, it can be very challenging. I’m not really keen on doing river crossing as its usually very cold, you get wet and for the rest of the day you have wet socks and horrible white wrinkly skin. Having a second pair of socks doesn’t help as the boots are saturated and in no time at all the new socks would all be wet.
I arrive at Hunters hut at 6:30 in the afternoon, The river crossing wasn’t as bad at I first thought it was going to be. During the night at Mid Wairoa hut, the walls of the hut were thin and I could clearly hear the river outside and some rain on the roof, I guess during the night. after I had read the notes about whats to come the following day, I must have had dreams about today and the up coming challengers of the river crossing.
The first hour this morning was just walking along side the river up high where at times I could see the rush of the water and hear its noise that it had a top up from the nights rain. I came across the first river crossing, I was nervous, I walked up and down the river edge to find the best spot to enter and exit. I had decided to keep my tramping boots on and not to use my rubber shoes and then after what seemed forever, I crossed. As i made it to the other side, I wandered what the fuss was all about as it wasn’t even up to my knees and I’d say it was one of the easy crossings I have done so far. All up I had 7 seven more of these crossings and during the day.
Beyond the Upper Wairoa Hut, the track enters Red Hills country with views of red hills and valleys, The pain to my knee was getting worse and I had to slow down and rest at the High hut or was it upper Wairoa hut, I’m not sure. The orange hut anyway.
