September 21st - Moa Park Hut to Marahau and CIVILISATION!! - 15 kms
 
I didn't sleep very well of course, being cold and damp. What sleep I did get was shallow and dreamful. Andrew got up at about 4am and thankfully the rain had stopped and a doleful hazy moon peered down through scudding dark and wet looking clouds. Could the rains have stopped? We dozed on until dawn when I went to the toilet. It was a beautiful sunny, blue day with birds twittering and the roar of the river gone. Apart from the wet everywhere you'd have never known that yesterday had happened. We got up at 7 and had breakfast of chocolate biscuits. We got some wood inside to dry and swept out, donned our freezing cold , wet clothes and boots and packed our still sopping bags. I'd tried to light the fire again with no success. We went down to the river to wash and it was by now back to normal status - a gurgling brook no more than six inches deep.

The Tin Shack with holes that was Moa Park Hut

'We went down to the river to wash and it was by now back to normal status - a gurgling brook no more than six inches deep.'

We set off at 8 o'clock, with a very big day in front of us, if we wanted to make it to Marahau by 3pm when the bus left for Nelson. To make matters worse, Andrew had a bad knee, which was painful to walk on and both of us felt the worst we had felt any morning so far with having very little sleep. Still we set off for Castle Rock Hut, one and a half hours away, with grim determination. The paths were still trickling and there were still ponds of water everywhere, but it was nothing like the cascades and waterfalls of yesterday. The walk was quite pleasant through dense forest as usual. We managed to get to Castle Rocks in 1 hour and 35 minutes, just about on schedule.

The beautiful views on a sunny day, on our rushed scramble to Castle Rock Hut
'Apart from the wet everywhere you'd have never known that yesterday had happened'

Me on our last forced route march to Castle Rock

Castle Rock Hut

 It was a beautiful modern place with wood stacked everywhere. We stopped for a drink and chocolate, and wrote in the visitor's book. We saw a sign to Hollyford clearing, the next place, which read 3 and a half hours. This was our first blow as on the map, it looked no further than the distance between Moa Park and Castle Rocks, and so we had left no more than 2 hours to do it!
We quickly set off through more woodland, following orange discs doggedly. We went as fast as we could with Andrew's knee, which hurt badly when clambering up or down tree roots which crossed the steep paths everywhere. The path annoyingly wound its way around every hillside and right up into valleys to cross streams and then all the way back out again. Our spirits fell. It looked like the sign would be right and we would never make it to Marahau on time, especially with the last very steep descent at the end. Just when our hopes were seriously flagging though, we arrived at the clearing, a flat grassy area with hut and toilet and tarpaulin pond!! - and we'd done it in 2 and a half hours!!. There was still hope, though it would still be hard work and to make matters worse, with my wet socks I had developed some painful blisters. We started our descent and then annoyingly climbed again to a ridge before descending proper, and very steeply, which did neither my blisters nor Andrew's knee much good!! It was tough on my knees too which started to ache. The last half flattened out though and wound its way around the hills dropping hardly at all. Is there no happy medium in this place?? At last we rejoined the coastal path exhausted, but with still quite a way to go to Marahau and the bus. By now every step was agony, but we carried on. We weren't going to miss the bus after coming so close!!!

Andrew hobbling/rushing onwards with his bad knee

At last a glimpse of Marahau.. but would we make it in time for the bus!!??

At 2.45pm we arrived at the information point at Marahau!!! We'd made it!!!! The sense of achievement flooded over us, but we were too tired and aching to really take it in. We signed out of the park and the bus arrived and left on time. We stopped at a shop on the way back and bought sweets, a magnum, crisps and a can - all those things that had been denied us for 6 days. We had to work for them though, as our legs had stiffened up with sitting and we couldn't move them to get off the bus. We were dropped off at the Youth Hostel and waited for a suitably huge gap in the traffic to enable us to hobble across. We checked in and went upstairs to wash our stinking, wet clothes and have a SHOWER!! I can't describe the heavenly feeling THAT was after 6 days, and don't try to imagine it because you CAN'T!!! We went in to town for food and cam straight back to bed - a warm, soft bed, with warm, soft pillow, in a warm, soft room and fell fast asleep as soon as our heads touched…..zzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZ!