From Geraldine to Stone Hut
Hiking time: 10:15a.m.-07:00p.m.
Daily/Total distance: 18.5km /635.5km (215.5 hitched/skipped)
Steps: 32446
Weather: rain at the beginning, then sun with clouds forming towards the West containing small droplets of rain

I got up at 7am this morning. I grabbed all my things, including the tent, and moved towards the kitchen area of the holiday park to pack. Hung up the slightly wet fly and groundsheet over some chairs to dry and packed up the rest of my things. I was done by 8am and headed off to the designated meeting point where the shuttle was supposed to pick us up at 8:15am. The two Canadians were already there as well as a British guy who skipped from Methven to here to get around the river sections without having to pay a shuttle. Then the American joined us as well. The shuttle didn’t come though and by 8:30am I called Wayne up again to make sure that I had the day right. He arrived 30s later. With him grabbing a coffee and having to get fuel we weren’t off until 8:45am.

The ride took us a bit more than an hour and we arrived with rain greeting us at the trailhead where 6 NOBOs were already waiting. We all dinner our rainjacket and pack covers and then were off at 10:15am.

The track started on a 4W track that soon turned to a river walk upon reaching Bush Stream. We all didn’t even try to keep our feet dry, as it was raining anyways.

Within 30min though the rain dissipated and the sun came out. In the valley ahead we could see that it was still raining as a rainbow had formed in the direction we were walking.

The river walking continued though and my legs were continuously wet up to my knees.

I missed the turn off where the trail went over a mountain instead of following the riverbed. But I saw on the map that it later crosses the river again before ascending to Crocked Spur hut, so I continued in the riverbed. The Canadians had also missed the turn off and soon appeared ahead of me in the riverbed.

After 3h of wading through the river the trail turned up very steeply on a mountain side. It ascended for a few hundred metres. This took me forever as I had to keep stopping to catch my breath and at the same time ensure I do not tumble down the stretch that I had just come up. The view from up above the trendline was great though and made this all worth it.

After further going up I finally reached Crocked Spur hut at 2am. The Canadians and the British guy were already there and having lunch. I stopped as well to spread out my wet things from the morning and get snacking on my bag of crisps that I had with me. The others soon left me there to my own devices upon which I went ahead and applied more sun lotion before setting off for the next 500m ascent at 3pm.

After the hut the trail continued further and further up towards the saddle. It took me about 2h to get up there in the blazing sun. It wasn’t a hard ascent, but with the sun it was very hot.

Then the trail went down again. Through scree and grass. Markers were far and few, but the track was recognisable from people who had walked here previously.

The trail pretty much continued downhill and sometimes flat. As i was going down i kept seeing dark clouds behind me and was afraid that I would get bad weather soon. But the clouds always dissipated once they crossed the mountain range towards the valley that I was walking through. It seems what I’ve heard about the weather over the mountains holds true. The clouds rain down on the west coast and the dissipate coming over the southern Alps.

Just before the hut came a steep descent down towards the hut. Them the river was crossed on a very very well built bridge.

I reached Stone Hut at 7pm. The Canadians and the British guy were already there as well as 3 NOBOs, two American girls and a Kiwi girl. One Canadian and the British guy had their tents pitched outside a and with 8 bunks in the hut I had the whole top area for me to choose from.

Before doing anything else I had to go down about 200m to the river to get water and wash some of the sweat off. Then I went about starting dinner. It was interesting to talk to the others who had just come from where we were going. Stone but also had 2 camping chairs that someone had left behind, which were very nice to sit in.

Just before heading to bed I went outside to the dunny. Looking up at the free patch of the night sky I saw a shooting star just as I was looking up. Very nice. Then I went to sleep at 10:30pm.