Te Araroa (day 65) - Damper Bay to Highland Creek Hut / mile 1644

Short day but very satisfying.
I woke up, it was raining. Heavily. I decided to stay in the tent until it gets better. It did around 8am I ate an apple an the cold soaked porridge, wrapped the camp up and hiked out. The tent stakes broke (again) as I was folding them up but I decided to address it later.

It didn't take long before rain came back. Road was going around the lake and through a massive Glendhu Bay Lakeside Holiday Park, I asked at the reception here if they could borrow me few tools to fix the tent and they did! I got some industrial lubricant and a wrench and managed to screw the parts back together - the thread was gone so I wouldnt be able to do it manually.

Trail soon hit the dirt road and before I knew it I was climbing Motatapu Track in the dense forest. Eventually it came out onto a tussock plain and went along the ridges to Fern Burn Hut. Here I met Too Clean a triple crowner from US and Thomas from Germany, they were zeroing in the hut due to the weather. We had a brief chat about American trails and how they compared to TA, then I carried on.
Weather was getting worse, it even started to snow lightly at one point. After 3 hours I reached the second and final for the day Highland Creek Hut. Surprisingly Scott from Australia and Asushi from Japan were also staying the night here. Little by little hut was filling in with people and by 6pm we had 11 strong team staying here for the night. It was quite a squeeze but it surely made for a lively and entertaining evening. People were cooking various things, sharing their stories and discussing issues from around the world. There were a few photographers in the mix and Nikon turned out to be the most popular choice.
Chats and laughs were going all the way to the hiker midnight. People were admiring the surrounding peaks covered by fresh snow and enjoying the community we created for one evening in this remote and serene environment.

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