Te Araroa (day 33) - Dracophyllum Hut to Parawai Hut [Tararua Range] / mile 992

Today was more of an obstacle course than a trail. Sliding on or trying to manoeuvre around mud in long grass, hanging for dear life to tree branches on downhill sections, scrambling up and down exposed rock ridges, using tree roots as ladders to climb and descend, rock hopping river crossings, no water for the first half of the day, all the water during second, you name it!

It was still fun and memorable day. Tararua's proved that they mean business, it was definitely the most challenging section on Te Araroa so far.

In the morning I've hiked to Nichols Hut, topped up my water (which at this elevation was rain water collected in the huts tank) and had a breakfast consisting of Gruyère cheese, dry dates and tortilla. I managed to meet the last person leaving the hut, he said that it was 11 people sleeping here yesterday. 

If you look closely you can see Nichols Hut on the next picture.

From here, trail climbed to 1462m tall My Crawford, a lovely hour long walk along the ridge line with great views on both sides. From that point on it was downhill. Path went down to just over 300m in about 3 mile stretch, it was an absolute knee killer.

After that trail mostly flattened, but it was still a nightmare to navigate with fallen trees, roots shooting every direction, mud and streams everywhere. It was slow going and by 1pm I managed to hike only 10 miles. It felt like I did at least twice as much. I decided to push 5 more miles to a Parawai Hut hoping I could arrive there before it gets dark.

Luckily the obstacle course ended unexpectedly about half way through. Trail joined the old timber trail, you could still see the train tracks sticking out of the ground. Suddenly it was like walking on a red carpet! Path remained fairly even and well kept until the hut, so I managed to get there around 6pm.

Surprisingly it was empty, it looked like whoever was going through today decided to push towards the next campsite. I was waiting for one other hiker, Peter from US whom I've met few hours before. He said that he might 1be joining me here tonight but perhaps he changed his mind as once the difficult section ended there was a lot of good camp spots available and he looked quite done with the day when I saw him.

The plan to reach Wellington on the Christmas Eve has returned, it looks like the trail from here goes along beaches and roads which should be easy to navigate. There's one last climb tomorrow and Tararua's are over.