Icy tent!

28 April

Piropiro Campsite to Bog Inn Hut 

KM 961.5

Distance: 19km

Elevation: ascent 697m; descent 297m

Steps: 30,500

Time: 8:50am - 2:50pm

A few days ago we titled a post "Chasing Autumn". Now we feel like we are being pursued by winter! This morning we woke to ice on the tent fly, inside and outside. Neither of us had a comfortable sleep, the temperature testing the limit of our sleeping bags.  

A gently undulating walk of 19km was the goal today. After our marathon distance yesterday neither of us were up to a repeat. And our destination, Bog Inn, has a 'must visit' reputation. Only time would tell if this was a good or bad reputation. The track continued along the cycle trail, with a well maintained, wide and not too steep track meaning we made good time. There were a few more impressive suspension bridges which are a real feature of this 82km cycle trail. 

We spent all day in the forest, and because of today's short distance we took the time to check out whatever interested us.

We discovered this critter crawling along the track. Some kind of giant pillbug (US term I think). It rolled up as soon as it was picked up.

We also came across these stunning wee blue mushrooms (werowero-kokako, Entoloma hochstetteri). We're pretty sure these are the ones that appear on the NZ $50 note. Vaughan has been looking out for these for a couple of years now and this was the first time he'd seen them. As usual, it was Eliza that spotted them first. 

Later we came across the grey version, or maybe just a washed out blue one.

Horeka (Lancewood, Pseudopanax crassifolus) is a great example of plants in New Zealand that have a very different form in their juvenile stage compared to their adult stage. Biologists attribute this to a defense against Moa - the leaves are much harder, sharper until the tree gets above a few meters tall, at which point the plant doesn't need to spend as much energy on defending its leaves any more. Apparently no one has told them the moa went extinct over a century ago.

We arrived at Bog Inn Hut with plenty of daylight to spare. It has a standard wood burner but the building is old (1960) and has lots of holes and gaps in the walls and floorboards. So it's going to be another cold night, but better than being outside in a tent. As we write we can also hear the scurrying of little feet in the walls. Mice? Rats? Guess we'll find out soon! In America people hang their food in bear proof containers. Here we hang food bags off a nail in the roof joist so it's out of reach of rodents.