Day 71. Richmond Range – 4 Huts, That’s Nuts! January 12, 2016.
31 km
Tarn Hut km 1882 to Porter Hut km 1913.
Today was the best day on the trail yet. It started with a gorgeous sunrise and CLEAR skies.
The track down to Mid Wairoa took 2 hrs 45 min not 4 hrs. But it was steep and much easier this morning than it would have been at the end of the day yesterday.
The way to Top Wairoa Hut was all about waterfalls, blue pools, and 8 river crossings.
After Top Wairoa I was finally above treeline and into another world. It kept getting better and better. First I had lots of boulders and tussuck to walk over.
Then I got to the saddle and the views opened up. I took so many photos up here. It’s where I love to be.
Hunter Hut is in a beautiful setting. I could see it 4 km before I got to it.
The weather forecast going in was for light rain tomorrow morning so I wanted to get as far as I could today. At 3pm I checked the weather again using my Delorme InReach SE. Now the rain isn’t supposed to happen til 2pm tomorrow. It was 5:15pm and another 4 hr estimate for time. Since it doesn’t get dark until after 9:30 I had plenty of time.
The trail notes say undulating between Hunter and Porter. It was steep up and down over and over.
Looking back at what I just hiked up.
Looking forward
I finally saw the orange hut….
Sean and Arno were there and no one else. Perfect. I went inside and started eating.
It’s perfectly clear outside. Hard to imagine that it is going to rain tomorrow.
nancyhikes 
well done, some more rain forecast again next week
http://metvuw.azurewebsites.net/
full website for rain maps http://metvuw.com/forecast/forecast.php?type=rain®ion=nzsi&noofdays=10
Thank you. I just learned of that site. One of my hitches into Nelson told me.
I know. And high winds. Bummer.
not a complete show stopper, just need to get in the pass hops for travers and waiau, in between the high winds, you’re mainly in the valleys
And hopefully see what’s up there. Hey, thanks for the mobile site for metvuw. I hadn’t seen that one. It’s on my home screen now.
on the menu at the top you can select the south island map… someone got sick of the main site not loading on their phone and made their own version
Yes! It works much better. Thank you.
Great to have that feature on the Delorme! Looks like you made it to town before the rain hit the next day too!
And now that feature won’t work. Grrr!
What!? Really!? I need to read your recent posts to see if you explain it.
Lots of people hike hut to hut. Or stop at every other. The estimated times make it seem like that’s all you can do.