Wednesday, April 1: Sunny with a few clouds on the horizon; quite warm

Tramping: Rawhiti – Cape Brett via Deep Water Cove, 16.3 km

Cape Brett Hut (DOC, $15, gas cookers, no heating; $30 track fee for private land)

Managed to struggle up at a quarter past seven and fry two eggs for breakfast, pack everything up into the backpack for the hike and then everything else into their bags and into the car and was ready to go by 8:30.

Short drive to the ferry and was soon on the other side (car $11) and down the meandering road to Rawhiti. I had been considering walking via Whangamumu and that track entrance was 5.4 km down the road (a gravel road for the most part at that) but as we will see that wouldn’t have been such a good idea.

Found someone’s front yard to park the car in ($5) and swapped shoes for the hiking boots and was ready to tramp by 9:45. Views of the bay begged to be photographed but the batteries packed in immediately and once on the track the next bay beckoned likewise so I got out a box of batteries and kept them in an outside pocket just in case. Read more…