Day 29 - Hope Kiwi hut to Haranui hut

As I stepped out the door of Hope Kiwi hut a light rain started. Although it was Overcast there was still a good amount of humidity, and with my rain gear my morning walk was quite toasty. Although it made my morning a bit more difficult, I would take light rain over sun any day. I think it's the most beautiful way to see nature, and it's worth the little bit of extra work.

I soon came to a saddle that I climbed for a good 45 minutes, when I reached the top I took a side trail to a lookout and posted up for lunch. Peri peri tuna on a tortilla was my midday meal today. As I sat and enjoyed the views, a little robin came out of the woods and landed on a wooden stump near by. He clocked is head with curiously and decided to jump a few feet closer. Then a few more feet closer. I threw him a piece of my tortilla shell and he slowly approached it. After a few pecks he gobbled it down. The robin ended up spending my entire lunch next to me, enjoying the calm yet dramatic landscape in front of us.

After lunch I carried on through a beautiful forest section. The lighting was perfect and I found myself stopping more often than I liked. There is an abundance of moss and lichen growth in these forests that leaves me speechless every time.

There were a few times throughout my day where there were so many fallen trees that I would have to go off trail and bushwack my own way throughout the forest. It made for very slow going. Once I left the forest I entered an open field, and off in the distance I could see a swing bridge. I began walking towards it, but it was a good kilometer or more away. As I got closer to the bridge I came insight of a herd of cows. I walked in a outward direction to their pack, but one bull eyed me up and started walking towards me. His muscular chest, and firm stance let me know he was in charge. I calmly continued forward, but now walking with my back to the bull. I kept turning around to see where he was at, and to my surprise the bull started charging me. I was getting quite close to the bridge, but I wasn't sure if I would make it in time before he caught me. I started running, but after a few meters the charging bull stopped. Not my first getting on a bulls bad side on Te Araroa, and Proabably not the last.

15 minutes before I reached Haranui hut I ran into Wietse. He was sitting on a moss log enjoying some of the final beauties of the forest before reaching the hut. I joined him, and we made the final 300 meter walk to the hut together.

Haranui hut was beautiful, with a porch and a great view. As I began unpacking my gear something dawned on me. While eating lunch at the lookout point today I had left my long titanium spoon behind. I was really sad, as that spoon had been so amazing throughout my hike, and also it's really hard to cook without a spoon! I had to go into the woods and carve out a ladle from a piece of wood to eat my dinner. It worked fine, but It was no titanium spoon.

As the sun set, Wietse and myself sat on the porch and sipped some whiskey that he had carried in from Hanmer Springs. We didn't have much, hell we didn't need much, but it was a good reward at the end of another long day. As we sat on the porch enjoying our drinks a possum walked up and got scary close to us. Justin and Dylan came running out and this is when we realized that there were possums everywhere. Shinning our light in their direction blinded them, allowing us to get really close. Justin was by far the most curious, with his pink shorts and headlamp. He would follow the possums into the woods trying to get as close as possible. Justin is definitely the comic relief of the group. We had our fun sneaking up on possums and spotting a few owls before settling in for another night on the trail.

Goodbye titanium spoon...