(Christmas Eve)
There were hail stones on the roof and the windows were shaking in their frames when we woke up. It had rained all night and just for a moment we thought the weather might be turning ready for our white Christmas after all.
As usual, id woken up desperate for the toilet, so I put my coat on, pulled my hood up, and braved the walk to the long drop outside. (That's the worst thing about the huts- the toilet is always outside and a good few meters from the actual hut itself... actually, it's good most of the time for every other reason - just not when your desperate to go and it's hailing outside!!)
I walked out the hut door; wrapped up as I said, and I just couldn't believe the view! Hail or no hail, I could see right down into the valley and the forest in every direction from it. I rushed back in to the tiny hut and told Luke he had to come see it. Think I woke everyone else up too as one by one heads emerged from sleeping bags and appeared at the window.
Eager to see more, we wished the Austrians a happy Christmas (remembering the 24th was their Christmas Day) and headed up towards Mount Crawford. We were wrapped in waterproof trousers, gloves, waterproof coats and buffs over our faces to keep the wind chill off - it was almost enough to push you off the track at times.
We walked for an hour (the notes said two) to the peak of Mount Crawford. We had gone the whole way with nothing but white cloud on either side of the ridge and had lost all hope on any more views for the day but just as we dropped down from the peak, we literally watched the clouds blow over our heads and reveal an even more incredible view than the one I saw in the morning - I don't quite know how to describe how vast the forest is.. it goes for miles and it feels like if you walked ten minutes in any direction off track you'd never find your way back out.
We hung around for a while but then started the (very) steep descent down to Waiteewaiwai hut (pronounced YTYY). We knew the Austrians were stopping here for their Christmas evening celebrations so we left a game of 'shit head' set up for them on the table, a sign wishing them happy Christmas, and a piece of chocolate orange each. Hopefully they got there before anyone else did!
We carried on from this hut through forest for another 4 hours. Unfortunately, having had such an incredible start to the day, the forest walk wasn't quite as interesting and seemed to drag for the most part. There was a climb to start with and then it was fairly steady as the track opened up over fields and river.
We popped up into the Otaki Fourks clearing where our hut should have been according to our notes but it took us several wrong turns before we realised the maps had marked a track that didn't actually exist. We wondered for a while before finally finding a sign post for Parawai Lodge so we made our way in the blistering sun (even though we had hail on the mountain that same morning!!) to our hut for the night.
We had a quick wash in the sink, hung our clothes to dry outside, and then prepared for our Christmas celebrations!
Luke chopped down an old, dead tree (he's very proud) and made a fire, we hung secret santa gifts above the fireplace in our dry bags and got our presents out from family at home ready for the morning, and we ate fancy dehydrated meals to Christmas music ... have absolutely nailed the 12 days of Christmas!!
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