Cookie and I burst into Hurunui Hut, dumping our stuff in a mound we pegged it back out into the woods, grabbing arm-fulls of twigs, and dragging small fallen trees back. Some serious rain was coming and if we wanted dry boots for tomorrow, we’d better get some fire on the go!
Making fire is brilliant. Any excuse will do. And so as the downpour began, Cookie was outside wielding his axe, hacking the fat branches into chunks and throwing them to me. Me, on the porch, snapping and sorting all the smaller ones into piles of kindling and twiglets. The fire was good. It was warm, and lit the room in orange. We had he hut to ourselves. And as the rain poured down outside we ate our chilli noodles and read at length the ‘Haunted Huts’ article in Walking magazine. Great tales of people getting the creeps in the remote mountains. Easily done in these creaky wooden buildings ;)
We arrived at the hut shortly after lunch and umm-ed & argh-ed about carrying onto the nearby hot spring in the afternoon to camp. But were a bit reluctant to camp in this sandfly infested valley and slightly worried that it might piss it down. The next hut, Hurunui No.3, was 4 hours away which wouldn’t leave us much time to enjoy the hot pools so we decided to stay here tonight. Good decision! Shortly after while out collecting firewood the rain clouds finally caught us up and promptly pissed it down all evening.
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