Day 1

On Saturday last week Bryn and I set off from the end of Thompsons Rd to climb up to Motutapere Hut via Mt Eliza. This was the exact same hike up as day 1 with Sam other than the fact that the weather was a billion times better. In the couple of months since I had last been up Mt Eliza, the track had been cut back which meant we didn't even have to check the maps at all. It was a short but steep climb up to the hut which we reached at around 1 pm. Since it was a Saturday and the weather was great, we decided we needed to get to the hut nice and early to secure some bunks. Two other guys from Auckland turned up at the hut about half an hour after planning to stay the night too. It is good to know that Motutapere hut says on the DOC website that it only has 3 bunks when in fact it comfortably sleeps 4.

We ended up spending the night with the two other guys who were very friendly and knowledgeable on gear and the Kaimai's in general. They had come up a hunter's track from the Killarney lakes to the Hut Junction on the North-South track. The 4 of us wound down with our dehydrated meals and some hot chocolate. After some gear talk and discussion about bivvies and minimalistic camping (very interesting), we decided to call it a night.

We then trekked back down the hill in our socks and slides for a bit of breakfast and a pack-up. We left the hut at 9.30 aiming for a 3 pm pickup at the Hotsprings Rd end. The top section between Motutapere hut and the Tuahu track junction is by far the best strip of track I've ever hiked to this day. There are constant views that are just epic.

After making it to the Tuahu junction, we went right down the eastern Tuahu track. We realized that we were way ahead of time for our agreed pickup time of 3 pm with dad. We decided we should throw in a little detour up to Sentinel rock. The track gradually improved as we descended.

At the top of Sentinel rock, we had lunch which was a flavored rice pot. After pulling lunch out of my pack, I realized that I didn't have the PLB (personal locator beacon) which we had hired from Macpac. Because of this, it was going to cost $600 if it wasn't returned the next day so we agreed that we had to have left it at the hut so we figured out that the only way to retrieve it was to do the whole 12 km loop again. This meant that we walked a total of 31km on Sunday.