Day 57 - Fern Bern to Rose's Hut

Everyone slept in today, and even Hugo - who was the first person to wake up - cooked his breakfast outside to give the rest of us some more time to sleep. It's very rare that I get to share a hut with such civilized people.

I knew going to Rose's hut would be a very challenging day, and instead I left Fern Bern hut with the intention of going to Highland Creek Hut. It was only 6km away but over a challenging and steep saddle. When I reached the top of the saddle I ran into a girl who worked for DOC and informed me of some rain and gale force winds supposed to hit tonight and go into tomorrow morning. I didn't like the idea of hiking from Highland Creek Hut to Rose's hut in the rain since it was the most challenging section but I also didn't like the idea of hiking to Rose's hut today as I would be hiking over 1500 meters of steep accent and decent, and Proabably getting in quite late.

In the end I decided to push towards Rose's hut. The scenery in this section is marvelous, but the hiking was extremely challenging. At one point during an accent up a very steep mountain I walked past a falcon perched on the top post of a trial marker. I expected him to fly away when I got close, but he just watched me.

instead of boring you with details of the hike, just know that by the time I reached Rose's hut I was completely spent. My knees hurt, my achilles on my eight foot felt tight and uncomfortable and I was hyperventilating for some much of the day that my body was in a constant feeling of tingles.

Wietse was the only one at the hut when I arrived and I could tell right away when I saw him that he knew the pain I endured coming from Fern Bern hut. I asked him to take a portrait of me in my state of exhaustion.