Opening out to the flats

The copse of beech trees surrounding our campsite kept us warmer last night - marginal and relative if you know what I mean.

The retired farmer blokes glide off on their long legs before we do. They'd warned us of the first hour. Yep, they're right, it's rock and boulder hopping and not the sort of place you'd want to fall or twist a knee.

We're all good and soon we're traveling beside the upper Waiau River which is utterly delightful. There are even some birds checking us out. We move quickly and reach Caroline Biv in 2 hours.

After a cursory inspection of the biv (it would look good in a storm), we leave the sagging bunks and monster spider. Perhaps it lives on sand flies? Clearly not enough as the population is large and persistent. We're glad we didn't sleep there.

The quickly leave the bush as the valley widens out to typical dry Canterbury grass and tussockland. As we eat lunch a stiff warm westerly arrives. The first high cloud is visible and while we don't expect the weather to deteriorate quickly, we know we had the best day to cross the pass yesterday.

After 7.5 hours we pitch our tents beside the 4-wheel drive track we've followed for the past couple of hours. I wrongly think to myself we'll be warmer at a lower altitude under 800m.

I'm tired.