By Ruth
Distance: 23 km
Yesterday was a very restful rest day. Since we arrived in Hawea at around 2:30 pm, we had lots of time to hang out at the holiday park, swim in the beautiful lake, read, and chat with some of the other holiday park guests. Even though we were camping it felt like a real rest day. It helped that the weather was perfect.
This morning was a bit of a change of pace. We got up early because we had a pretty big section of trail to tackle today, and we still had to walk the 7-8 kilometres to the trailhead first.
The walk along the lakefront, though pretty, was tough going. The sun had just risen so it was at the exact angle to get me in the eyes, even with a hat on. It was warm, and I was a bit apprehensive about the 1200 m of vertical we were about to gain very steeply.
We did get a couple of good distractions though. One was another NOBO, Isaac from Christchurch, who caught up with us and we chatted for a bit while we walked. Second was a couple of guys who asked us if we knew which of the mountains was Breast Hill, because they were planning to paraglide off it! Breast Hill is the name of the track we were headed to as well, but we couldn’t say for certain which of the hills along the lake it was.
Once we got to the trailhead and started climbing, things improved. For one thing we were shaded by the mountain for the first while. Also, there were switchbacks and lots of rocky footholds, breaking up the monotony and making things easier on the calves and heels. It was a long climb but the views were great, and I pretty quickly got into the rhythm of it.
After a couple hours we reached the turn off to the first hut. As we paused there to filter some water, one of the paraglider guys caught up with us. Turns out there was a whole group of them up there, getting ready to jump off and fly back down to the town. I think they were planning to land in the frisbee golf course. As we continued up to the summit, and over the course of our lunch break at the top, we got to see a few of them flying over the lake. It looked pretty cool and also terrifying.
After lunch we turned away from the lake and followed an old 4WD trail inland. Even though we were technically going down from the summit, there was still a lot of up which we weren’t too pleased about. Overall the walk after lunch was a lot less nice, but at least it was a wider track so we could chat a bit to keep ourselves lightly entertained.
When we reached the hut we discovered it to be pretty rough. Essentially a tin hut with a dirt floor, it was dark and had extra bold mice running up and down the walls. We decided to camp. There are a few other people staying here tonight who we chatted with and overall made the most of a less-than-ideal hut situation. After supper we did bit of knitting and reading in the tent and now we are wrapped up and ready for sleep.
