Te Araroa (day 43) - Slaty Hut to Mid Wairoa Hut [Richmond Ranges] / mile 1188

New Year's Day. The views day.

Today trail has been passing through the most scenic part of Richmond Ranges and probably some of the nicest landscapes on the entire Te Araroa. The weather also couldn't be better.

I had an early start from Slaty Hut and reached the ascent to Little Rintoul Summit around midday. For the next two climbs and descents the surface was a scree of various sizes but generally getting smaller as I went through it. I didint mind walking on this kind of terrain especially when it was dry, but it could get a bit.. wobbly. Couple of people were really taking their time here, making sure they go through it safely.
After climbing Little Rintoul it was turn for Mt Rintoul standing proudly at 1731 metres, the highest peak on The Araroa in Richmond Ranges. It was a really cool looking mountain, and to be fair the whole area was stunning. The descent from here was a very fine scree, you could slide on it but most of the time it wasn't very safe as the angle was quite steep.
I've reached My Rintoul Hut at 3pm and decided to push another two huts ahead meaning that I would go until about 7pm. Trail from here wasn't too challenging but the constant altitude changes made the progress quite slow. Eventually after one particularly steep descent I've reached Mid Wairoa Hut, my knees were crying for help at that point.

Hut was quite busy, 5 bunks out of 8 has been taken, so I decided to pitch a tent for the night. Campground was the sandfly capital so I had the dinner and washed myself in the river quite quickly. A family of Toutouwai, a native New Zealand's grey robins were living nearby, I spotted and taken few good pictures of them on my other camera! Same camera I dropped today on the rocks, the lens went flying and I though that's the end of it but the sturdy Nikon 1 survived somehow with couple of dents and a minor scratch on the lens! I was so happy when it turned on when I reasembled it again. I need to be more careful when handling it in the future.

After all the chores were done, I've quickly jumped inside the tent. In a minute outside got completely swarmed with sandflies but luckily the little spawns of satan couldn't get in. 

Overall a great day. New year has begun surprisingly well, I hope this trend will continue.

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