Legs and Borders

"Being offended is the natural consequence of leaving one's home" Fran Lebowitz I woke up in the morning just before the sunrise. The tent was completely frozen and so was the moss around it. I've put all of my layers on and started to pack up. To be fair, it wasn't that bad, it wasn't raining and wind was minimal, after 20 minutes I was on my way down from the Stag Saddle. I stayed off trail last night, so I had to find my way back to it. I followed a stream that was crossing it on my gps. The trail I chose to reconnect with was an old Te Araroa running through the valley, the new, more scenic one was higher up on the ridge but since I couldn't find it yesterday (no markers) I decided to gave up on it. Alternate was going through the tussock land, not many people was using it, the trail wasn't easy to spot but it was marked really well. I was walking from one marker to the other and it took about 3 hours to reach the Camp Strea...

Another interesting day on the trail, this time I went through Te Araroa's highest point. It started in wet fashion, fortunately it wasn't rain but the river crossings. Trail was following and climbing along the Bush Stream, there were many crossings and the water after overnight rain was quite high. I've arrived with my feet wet at the Crooked Spur Hut at 9am, took the shoes and socks off and had a breakfast. Vicki from New Zealand was in the hut waiting for her friend to arrive, she gave me weather update, it looked like we had a decent conditions for the next three days. I carried on walking to the Stone Hut and the Royal Hut, the trail started to follow the Bush Stream for the second time today. At this point I made a decision to camp somewhere around Stag Saddle, the highest point on Te Araroa, it didn't have to be the top itself as the weather here was supposed to drop to minus 3 degrees at ni...