Te Araroa Day 71, Goat Creek Hut to Lyell Hut

Starting km: (1979)
Finishing km: (2018)
km covered today: 39

My first day in real South Island mountains.  What a beauty!

I knew I had a fair distance to cover, and while I suspected the walking would be easy I wasn't 100% sure, so I got on the trail at 05:30.

The first couple of hours were a climb up through more beech forest before going up and over Solemn Saddle and into the Boneyard.  The boneyard was the remains of a massive landslide where it seemed that half of a mountain had fallen into Earnest valley below.

After the series of depressing names, it was nice to be greeted by Lake Cheerful as I neared the valley floor (though Lake Grim and Stern Valley were soon to follow [no, I'm not making these names up.]) I saw a few trampers and even fewer cyclists headed my way in this section (the trampers all seemed to be earlier risers for some reason.)

After a breakfast stop at Stern Valley hut the climb continued up and up.  During another forest section I passed a couple riding (or rather, pushing) touring bikes with big full panniers. This trail was significantly harder than the Timber Trail, and I didn't envy the folks who'd done the same there.

Things were only going to get tougher for them, as after a long slow sidle up a steep, forested hillside came the Skyline Steps. 300 Stairs aren't that big a deal when you're on foot, but even carrying a bike down them would be tough!

The steps were the gateway to the line section of the trail. The section on the open tops leading up to Ghost Lake Hut (where I stopped for a leisurely lunch, just missing a helicopter that was visiting) was nice, but the bit afterwards was even better. Rocky Tor and Mount Montgomery were seriously big and steep pieces of granite.

By this time it was clear that I would have no problem reaching my destination, so I had another nice long sit at the picnic table on the saddle between the two peaks. I didn't see another soul between the  time I left Ghost Lake Hut and when I reentered the bush.

The trail got busier at this point, as I encountered the walkers and cyclists who'd started their day at Lyell, 20-odd km below.  While nice, the beech and dracophyllum forest was something of an anticlimax after the grandeur of the mountaintops.  At least it was an easy stroll down to my home for the night, Lyell Saddle Hut.

This would be my one night in the fancy OGR huts that I'd been walking past for a couple of days, so it was nice to arrive at 15:00.  This gave me lots of time to sit out on the deck, admire the (still pretty good) view from the saddle and do a bit of reading.  I could swear that the hut was meant to be mostly booked our, but for most of the afternoon my only companions have been one other tramper (a fellow Wellingtonian headed the other way), two wekas (unsurprisingly, not at all bothered by people... one of them tried to steal the other walker's socks) and a black goat with a nice big set of horns (more surprisingly, also not bothered by people.)

If no one else arrives soon I'll have a bunk room to myself in the hut!