Day of rest

Staying at the pub, was a great move, Bindi was happy and I had a place to get well again. We had planned to try and hitch to St Arnard we were supposed to get back on trail, but it was all booked out as it is a touristy spot on Lake Rotoiti.

Fully stocked up again at the local 4 square we hit the road. Great hitch to trail head, life is good.  At the lake we got a small boat to take us to Lakehead, then walked the 14km to John Tait Hut. Awesome walk through the valley and then through the beech forest.  Trail a little wet as rained past day.  Sandflies here are on steroid’s I’m sure. 

The wasps are also in abundance. The black bark of the beech trees have a small fibre about 1 cm hanging off the bark with a droplet of honey sweet nectar at the end.  This is what the wasps feed off.  Funny coming around the corner to see Bindi trying to lick the tree 🤣🤣 wish I had a photo to share.

Leaving the hut we knew we had a big day and a big climb over the Travers Saddle approx 1800 meters. Quick stop at the Travers hut after 3 hours walking then up in over. Water was abundant even up high, as usual it was the down hill that was a killer!

As usual the views were stunning. No nothing u would see from a road or a bike.

We started to run out of steam about 4.30 so we’re super happy to see the hut… Lol, went inside to see a pig sty of packs n gear and the smell was worse! Quickly found one of the only few spots to put up our tent, froze our bits off in the river and started to feel normal again