Saturday, March 22, 2008

Carrington Hut Day 1






Today we began a 2 day tramp to the upper reaches of the Waimakariri river. Emma and I managed to convince dad to come along on this one as it was only going to be a short 3-4 hour walk. We set off after Emma had finished What Now and arrived around the 1pm mark, had some lunch and a coffee before setting off. The day was sweltering and the walk was all on the open flats. After walking for a good 2 hours we were all looking forward to a river crossing to cool off a bit, thankfully not to far after the Anti Crow hut we were blessed with knee deep crossings, we met up with an American tramper named Miles and walked the rest of the way with him. Now if you read the DOC route description it states NOT to follow the marked track after Harper Creek but what did we do? yep, followed the marked track and ended up on a boggy overgrown track which slowed us down. It was getting later in the day and the sun was beginning to get low in the sky, we were all hanging out for the hut. Thankfully it was just around the corner, but what we thought was going to be a short 3 hour walk took more like 5.5 hours! oh well we didnt have to walk in the dark so no worries. We got to the hut, threw our packs down and got the sleeping bags out (why did I bring a 4 season mountaineering one? it was toasty in the hut). Anyway we had a sit down before cooking a fantastic pasta meal with fresh mushrooms and salami and mashed kumera on the side! yummy!!! The rest of the night was spent around the table chatting to all the other trampers in there.

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