Day 73 - Merrivale Road to Martin's Hut

I woke up today early enough to leave the hut by 9am. It was a 30km hike that started in the road and gradually led into the Longwood Forest. The last forest on Te Araroa. It was a beautiful forest, but a tedious, messy forest. This was by far the muddiest forest I have had to hike through in the South Island, and the resemblance to the Northland forests (the first forests on Te Araroa) was quite funny. It was almost like the trail wanted to remind me of the pain I had to go through so long ago. It was impossible to avoid the mud, and at many points throughout the day I was knee high in it. There was a total of 1300m in total to climb, and the slippery messy track was incredibly slow going. 30km of this and eventually I reached Martin's Hut. Just in time to make dinner before the sun went down. Heiner was a champ and collected a bunch of firewood and already had a fire going when I arrived. It wasn't long after that Jukebox showed up, followed by Raffy and Anna.

Martin's hut is only a 4 bunk hut, made entirely out of wood, with slits of light seen through the walls. It was a special hut since it was the last hut on Te Araroa, and to me it was perfect. Tiny, cozy, and it even had a fireplace. What more could you ask for?

We all went to bed quite early as today was a long day.

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