Abel Tasman National Park 4

I woke up this morning early as usual and went back to sleep only to be awoken by our alarm clock, which had decided to go off for no apparent reason again!! I'm sure the two girls were happy!!... and the people in the room next door!! We got up at about 7.45am and packed our bags feeling very stiff as usual until the muscles got going again. The first job though was to puncture and plaster the blister I had got yesterday. We went for a wash at the toilets and then came back to do breakfast. We had a cheese, ham and pickle sandwich each. We then went upstairs to pack up the last of our stuff and set off at about 8.30, just in front of the german couple who were going our way up over Gibbs Hill, but then going to catch the bus at 12 in Totaranui. We'd spent the last three days walking along the coast convincing ourselves that the inland track couldn't possibly be as bad as everyone had said it was, and thought that people who moaned about how hard it was must be wet lettuces. The first part of our day fuelled our beliefs. The climb out of the valley and right up to Gibbs Hill was a gradual and steady rise. The sun was shining and there was a cool breeze blowing. The german couple overtook us, rushing to catch their bus.


I woke up this morning early as usual and went back to sleep only to be awoken by our alarm clock, which had decided to go off for no apparent reason again!! I'm sure the two girls were happy!!... and the people in the room next door!! We got up at about 7.45am and packed our bags feeling very stiff as usual until the muscles got going again. The first job though was to puncture and plaster the blister I had got yesterday. We went for a wash at the toilets and then came back to do breakfast. We had a cheese, ham and pickle sandwich each. We then went upstairs to pack up the last of our stuff and set off at about 8.30, just in front of the german couple who were going our way up over Gibbs Hill, but then going to catch the bus at 12 in Totaranui. We'd spent the last three days walking along the coast convincing ourselves that the inland track couldn't possibly be as bad as everyone had said it was, and thought that people who moaned about how hard it was must be wet lettuces. The first part of our day fuelled our beliefs. The climb out of the valley and right up to Gibbs Hill was a gradual and steady rise. The sun was shining and there was a cool breeze blowing. The german couple overtook us, rushing to catch their bus.
The nestling roof of Whariwharangi Hut on our gentle climb out of the valley	View over Wainui Bay on our ascent of Gibb's Hill
It wasn't until the final very steep climb to the summit at 405m that our dreams were shattered and we got our first glimpse of what the rest of the day was going to be like!!! It was incredibly hard, and by the time we nearly reached the summit we were huffing and puffing loudly and our backs were drenched. We dropped our packs off and walked (rather drunkenly, used to compensating for the weight of our rucksacks) to the actual summit up a smaller path. To make matters worse my hip had twisted on the way up and was quite painful. We carried on the next bit, continually up and downhill steeply, through farmland. With no cover, the breeze, which had turned to a biting wind, battered and buffetted us, blowing us about so that we must have looked like sailors on a high sea staggering about.
From the summit of Gibb's Hill looking along our route to come!	A rare moment of light heartedness on Day 4!
Getting hillier before we entered the woodland... and ominous low cloud appearing
Eventually we passed into woodland and until we met the road the path was quite pleasantly undulating through forest. We came across quite a lot of people going the other way, who had just got off the bus at the road, and at the back a Japanese lad who had come over the inland route (one of the very few) and had stayed at our destination last night (Awapoto Hut). The next half of the trek was a nightmare and I won't beat about the bush.. I hated most of it!!! It was a poor path through dense forest, clambering over fallen trees and trying to find the path again afterwards, and of course all the huge climbs, only to come all the way back down again. You couldn't see any views except forest, so it wasn't as if you had any reward even. It was soul destroying and I spent all my time grumbling and chuntering. The steep hills were agony, my legs burning with exertion and screaming out to stop, which I frequently had to do, but then so did Andrew who was also struggling. The last hill up to the hut was the killer of all killers and we trudged upwards and onwards, putting blind faith in the orange disc markers and struggling to put one foot in front of the other all the way. Of course we had had to go down from the last hill before commencing this climb!! To make matters worse, the cloud had come in and it had started to pour with rain. All the way up the last climb we were in the clouds. It was truly miserable. At last though we reached the modern little hut nestled in a clearing in dense forest. We went inside and got the fire going with wood and kindling that people had left before us and it burnt easily even if it was a tiny stove. We got changed into dry clothes. When the rain eased off Andrew went to find more wood so we could leave the next people some. I stayed inside writing this until he bought some back and then I went out to chop it up, which was hard work when I was so utterly exhausted anyway. We lit candles and cooked tea at about 6pm - a gastronomic delight of soup to start followed by bacon sandwiches. By the time we had done it , (we tried on the stove first) it was about 8pm and we went straight to bed with the stoves orange glow dancing across the ceiling and rain pounding on the roof.