Another gorge-ous day.

February 20

Double Hut to Comyn's Hut

KM 2281

Distance: 16km 

Elevation: 765m ascent, 783m descent

Steps: 28,000

Time: 8:00am - 4:30pm

We all woke up leisurely this morning, none of us even having been woken up by heavy rain or anything. So we were pretty hopeful about the state of the river that we would be crossing today.

The day dawned clear and bright, with beautiful views across the valley.

 

The track took us through shoulder-high tussock, with spaniard (the spiky plant we've written about before that will just stab you and poke holes in you!), matagouri, and thistle all vying for which plant would tear up your legs the most.

But once we got above the main tussock, the views were just spectacular.

There were even a couple of sidles along gravel slips, that were intimidating to look at, but very solid under foot.

(You can see Vaughan just starting to cross, from left to right)

We had lunch right at the top, with lovely views into both valleys.

Pretty much once over the saddle, we started into the Round Hill Creek River, a tributary of the Hakatere River. A few years ago, there were some major floods through this part of Canterbury, and it seems like the Round Hill Creek River re-adjusted its banks in those floods. The trail... doesn't really exist. You just make your way downstream, crossing whenever the river's curves are at a sheer cliff face, or along land that is covered in matagouri. Both of these are very frequent occurances.

The river really is beautiful, but to say we were "over it" by the time we saw the hut would be an understatement. A couple of groups going the other way estimated somewhere between 60 and 120 river crossings. We decided after 4 crossings that the day would just be walking down the river and there was no point in counting, so we'll have to take their word for it. (120 sounds accurate, to be honest)

Here's a picture of the hut before too many people showed up:

Trust me, it didn't stay that way too long!

When we got to the 8-person Comyn's Hut, it was just the three of us, and we were looking forward to having plenty of room to spread out. Luckily we did all of the quiet-time / organisational stuff quickly (sponge bath at the river, soup and tea, washing and hanging out undies and socks, Vaughan's bird count, etc) because about an hour after we got in, a group of 6 showed up. They are 4 solo NOBOs and one couple, also going NOBO. So the hut got louder! and busier...