From Waiau Hut to Anne Hut
Hiking time: 08,:30a.m.-03:00p.m.
Daily/Total distance: 22km /323.5km (140 hitched/skipped)
Steps: 32331
Weather: frost in the morning, sunny and clear all day

Last night was cold. Even with my warm sleeping bag I couldn’t completely remove the chill while sleeping. Might be due to the bag getting wet from condensation. Might have to look into a bivy over long. As I got up at 7am, I found out why I was so cold. Everything outside my tent was frozen from the night. Even though freezing level was supposed to be at 2700m last night, we had frost at 700m elevation.

I grabbed all my things and went into the hut to get warm, pack and eat breakfast. As people had already left and it was quite warm I also brought out my sleeping bag as I didn’t want to pack it up damp. Then I grabbed my tent and folded the frozen pieces together while keeping my dry inner tent dry. My fingers felt quite frozen afterwards. The wet socks and shoes that had been left outside were also frozen. So I put mine inside to get them to be at least wet instead of frozen. It would have been better to leave them in the vestibule of my tent instead of completely outside. After getting everything ready I set off at 8:30am in the freezing cold. I had put on my longsleeve, rain jacket, hat and gloves. I was only wearing shorts though as my legs would get wet in rivers soon enough anyways.

The track today is easy to walk on. It goes through the plains in the valley between the mountains.

Within a hour the sun came out and with it the first river crossing. Someone who had left before me showed me that I could go around it further in the bush in a tricky way. I just embraced the cold water and waded through it. The water was actually warmer than my frozen feet. So I carried on with now soaking wet feet.

Soon afterwards I stopped to change into my top and apply sunblock. I also used the opportunity to dry out my ground sheet and tent fly. As I was shaking out the frozen fly there were golfball sized clumps of ice falling out that had formed when i folded the frozen fly. The groundsheet dried quickly enough and the fly I spread out over my backpack to dry out while I continue walking.

Then I continued. At some point the track turned right into a different valley where there were some ups and downs over small hills. Nothing to strenuous though.

An hour be for reaching the hut though I was crossing a swing Bridge. Going onto the bridge I must have put my foot down in a stupid angle because my knee started flaring up immediately.

This then held on for the next hour until I finally reached Anne hut at 3pm. A lonely hut in the middle of a huge plain. Quite exposed but very nice.

Quite a few people were arriving here. We used the afternoon sun to dry everything as well as air it out. By the evening all 20 beds were taken in the hut. It was a merry bunch. In the evening we saw the full moon rising over the mountains. This is the moment I wished I had my big camera with me. I went to bed at around 10pm. Ready to either go to the next hut or Hanmer tomorrow.