By Ruth

Distance: 23 km

Despite the dire predictions for the weather today, we woke up to clear skies with just a few clouds on the horizon. It was therefore a lot easier to get going this morning than I thought it would be! The trail was great fun – mostly flat and alternating between lovely forest and beautiful open valleys. There were lots of cows in the valley which made me feel like we were in Switzerland.

It was about five hours to the next hut. As we walked up the valley we were also walking into the promised rain clouds, although luckily the serious rain held off until we arrived. We also had a very social time on the way there as we encountered some friends from earlier on TA and stopped to chat with them. It was so fun to see them, catch up, and get the inside scoop on which upcoming sections of trail for us are worth doing.

When we got to McKellar Hut we stopped for a long afternoon break. We are camping tonight for the first time since Pelorus Bridge, and given the rain and sandflies, we didn’t really want to be spending a long afternoon at the campsite. So we had lunch at the hut, read, knitted, chatted to the other people there, went to look for a swimming hole (sadly unsuccessful), and eventually ate dinner before heading out into the intermittent rain and the last 5 km of our day to camp.

It was quite wet, cloudy, and starting to get dark when we arrived. There are a few other friendly people camping here; it seems to be a bit of a home base for people who want to do the Routeburn Track on the cheap, or maybe just who didn’t plan ahead enough to get a booking.

As I mentioned, we haven’t camped in a very long time, so we were happy that the tent is still in working order. Hopefully it will keep us dry through the night… In the meantime, blogging on my phone in a tent is bringing back lots of North Island memories. I’d better say goodnight before the nostalgia really starts getting to me!