Day 2

After a cozy night in the small hut, my alarm went off waking me from a dose. It was 7 am and I had set it the night before knowing that the sunrise was going to be a banger! I forced myself out of bed, into some hijacked crocs, and up to the clearing above the hut. Sentinel Rock appeared, then Mt Maunganui, then Tauranga city, Papamoa Hills... I even saw the Mercury Bay Islands off the top of the coromandel peninsula... The views were amazing!

We enjoyed Porridge and even some sun which was something new after the previous day of endless water! We left late starting with a 50m climb to an unnamed peak where we got our first glimpse of Mt Te Aroha and the rest of the Waikato. The track was rugged but nothing compared to what we had to come. The hill dropped away from my toes, a gradient of what had to be 50°+. Reaching the bottom of the downhills only brought strenuous uphills close to the same gradient. The legs were kept warm, to say the least.

Our lunch spot was a small grass patch above what seemed to be a 20-meter cliff followed by another 100+ meters of steep Bank. We boiled our water and ate our noodles. After a quick climb up Kakarahi (641m), we carried on to the main event... the ladders. Yes, there are ladders. One, around 7 meters in height! This definitely got the blood pumping!

After a brisk 3.5km at 13min/km, we arrived at Te Rereatukahia hut where we soon set off for a sunset sidetrack to "point 735" (735m) where we saw Ruapehu!! We then went to see Wahine rock. A couple staying at the hut kindly got the petite wood burner roaring in our absence.

We chilled out in the roomy hut before sisters Sue and Tony turned up who were a great laugh! We had dinner and I gave them a rundown on manual camera settings which ended up lasting well into the night.

Day 3

We once again woke up at early dawn to see what was meant to be a sunrise. What we got instead was thick cloud, a sprinkle of rain, and best of all, 50km/h winds. Not to mention, it was 3°c!

Due to our short walk and late pickup time, we had until midday before we had to leave the hut. We slept in, wrote in the logbook, ate the remaining food, and played some games. (just normal teenage boredom)

The walk out to Wharawhara Rd was even shorter than we anticipated leading us to have another chill out at the stream crossing at the end of the track before pickup at the road end.