Day 74 - Red Hills Hut

Going for a different day today, instead of the official TA route I will taking an alternate route. The Red Hills Ridge. A last minute decision I made yesterday when a fellow hiker told me about it.  This alternate takes me on an off trail ridge line, a scramble route where I’ll meet back up with the trail a few huts down. The rest of the hut thought this was too difficult for them to do. I left the rest of the hikers from the trail near the hut and started scrambling my way up to gain the ridge line. They continued on the trail to a mountain pass ahead. 

Looking like an absolutely gorgeous day. Not pictured is the 1000km/hr blowing me around. 

Looking over into the next valley. A treeless valley, looks out of place in NZ. 

11am photo traversing the talus slopes. 

The ridge line was very rocky terrain. Slow progress rocking hopping on the narrow ridge. This would be manageable day hiking, but with a heavy backpacking pack it was tricky balancing on the rocks. This section took some route finding skills to navigate the steep rocky terrain. The first section I was happy to have a Personal Locator Beacon on me. Luckily the wind died down, otherwise this would’ve been too dangerous. 

Eventually the rocky ridge began to descend and gave way to grassy tussock terrain. While it looks like a pleasant stroll through a flat grassy plain, alas it was not. Every step was a gamble of what laid below the grass; a pool of water? ankle twisting rocks? This terrain made me wish I was back hopping on the rocks. 

I descend the final push to Red Hills hut. Here I found a very full hut. I’ve caught up right into the main hiker bubble that I’ve been hearing about. Lots of walkers all around me now. There was familiar faces as usual, so it was good to catch up. 

Today was likely my favourite day yet. Off trail on a challenging route with beautiful weather. Route finding days are great days, puts all your skills to the test.