Masters in Mud

January 7th

Martin's Hut to Merrivale

Distance: 28km 

Vertical: 385m ascent, 700m descent

Steps: 46,200

Today was looooooong

and muddy

Yesterday's forest was interspersed with some above-the-treeline, very exposed hilltops, with beautiful views (when we weren't literally inside a cloud, like the first photo above)

Those two words (long, muddy) pretty much encapsulate the day. Took us just over 12 hours to do this today, and we're both pretty wiped. Not for the faint of heart! Which, by the way, described Eliza for at least some of today. It's official, folks! The first 'break-down-and-cry' has happened. Not too bad of one, just a couple of misty eyes, but yeah. At the end of her tether. Between several hours of slogging through mud that at times was up to her knees (upper calf for Vaughan), wet shoes and socks, tired soles, Vaughan mentioning his knee problem has reared its head again, still not having hit a water source by noon, having been on the trail for 5 hours, and yes quite possibly just a little bit too long since we'd eaten anything.

True to form, Vaughan talked her into laughing, and then a rest, with some food, and then we continued. 

This dynamic went back and forth for most of the rest of the day - one of us nearly ready to just find a reasonably flat site and thrown the tent up, and the other saying "ok, but let's just have a sit-down first, maybe some food."

(Eliza writes: I'm pretty sure Vaughan was the voice of reason more often than not today!)

The track spat us out on to a dirt road with an avenue of fragrant eucalyptus trees which helped lift us a little. 

Reaching Merrivale, and the privately owned hut, we met up again with our hutmate from last night, and a couple who we stayed in Coloc Bay with - Eliza's long-lost cousin (last name Bennett, but probably no real relation) and his partner, both of New Plymouth.

Some of you wanted to know some of the characters we're meeting on the trail, so let me tell you a little bit about last nights (and tonight's) hut mate, we'll call him 'Greg'. 'Greg' has strong views on things, and will randomly change the subject of conversation the second he is bored with what you are saying. Some of our conversations last night were sharply curtailed when 'Greg' said things like, "Well, the science just isn't in yet on climate change, like whether carbon dioxide really has anything to do with the climate, right?" and "I just haven't seen enough evidence yet (about the covid vaccines)" and then to top it all off, he didn't sign the hut book!! (for those that have never stayed in a DOC hut, this is tantamount to sacrelige! On the other hand, when we showed up at tonight's hut tired and footsore, 'Greg' boiled some water for us to get a hot drink going. So we really like 'Greg'!

On to happier topics, here is a sampling of photos from today:

Finally, we leave you with this: the farm we are staying on farms deer. Did you know that deer make very funny little whine-grunts to each other? 

(update 13 Jan - just a few more photos from the same day)