Te Araroa 21/12/25

Day 91, Hunters hut to Redhills Hut (1972)

It was a cloudy morning but improved during the day and by the time I arrived at Redhills Hut there was a brilliant blue sky with a few fluffy clouds.

Morning from the hut

Up into the scrub

A steep climb up from the hut into the alpine scrub where I stayed for most of the day with only an occasional dip into the tree line.

The views were spectacular, a shame that the good weather had to wait until I'd nearly finished the Richmonds.

An explanation of the area, click to enlarge.

There were places that were just rock and gravel with nothing growing and others where the hardy Manuka was growing, sometimes quite tall.

Porters Creek Hut, very distinctive

The path followed a couple of rivers with high passes between them. The river beds were wide jumbles of stone, it must be an amazing place when it's really wet. Luckily for me there wes little water and I managed get across everything with only one wet foot when the solid looking stone I stood on wasn't.

I had an early lunch stop at Porters Creek Hut where, unusually, I had a proper meal as I seemed to be running out of energy. The problem with a shortage of café stops.

Braided river bed

Trail marker in the tussocks

The last section to the hut was a path across about a kilometer of boggy tussock grass, that spoilt the dry feet.

Redhills Hut

Just two of us in the hut tonight, myself and Vojta, a beautiful evening but it turned very cold when the sun went down.