Watching the weather changing over the Douglas Range at Perry Saddle Hut as night closed in, listening to the cold front blow through during the night and waking to a scattering of snow.
A sighting of the rare Takahe at breakfast, peoples’ sense of humour on the famed Shoe Pole on the way to Gouland Downs Hut.
Looking down on the beautiful ferny glade where the Gouland Caves are, the antics of the territorial wekas at Saxon Hut wanting crumbs and the openness of the tussock plains on the way to James Mackay Hut, to the sunset over the Tasman Sea. Something we don’t get living on the east coast of Australia.
Descending down through temperate rain forest, sighting a couple of tuis singing away and the glistening drops on the moss amongst the exposed coal seams on the track, and at Lewis Hut where we lunched with Department of Conservation workers clearing up an old Forest Service 1970’s rubbish dump now exposed by the Lewis River. How practices have changed! And then on to Heaphy Hut with the tide right out - wandering along the estuary then out amongst the driftwood on the beach and the granite pebbles of all sizes was just so peaceful and different from what tomorrow would be.
The weather was definitely turning for the worse as we left on our final day down the West Coast foreshore with showers passing through and the wind certainly felt cold but I think I saw it in all its glory. Just loved the whole experience - the suspended bridges with the water rushing past so clear even though so brown from the tannin and what beautiful forest. I particularly liked seeing the contrast of the nikau palms amongst the rata and other trees, the limestone crags held firmly by roots beside the track and the flaxes on the foreshore with the crashing surf surging up Scotts Beach. It was pretty much high tide when we crossed Crayfish Point but it wasn’t a problem as one of the DoC guys said the track had changed.
