20km Day : 819km Total
7 February 2015
-42.020551, 172.750205

This was one of the best days hiking I’ve ever had.  Amazing scenery the entire day following the Travers river upstream.  Cool sunny weather, and always the constant sound of water running over rocks, which I find very relaxing.

I left the hut soon after 8am.  The two Kiwi TA hikers (Colin & Graeme) left about 10 min before me and the other American TA hiker (Bobby) left after me.

Leaving Lakehead Hut

I caught up with the Kiwis a couple hours later when they stopped for a break beside the river on the warm rocks in the sun.(It had been a chilly morning.). After taking a short break myself and having a nice talk with them I moved on. 

First View of Mt Travers

Typical Sidestream

I reached John Tate Hut at noon and the other three trampers arrived shortly after.  We all stayed to have lunch together for an hour discussing different hikes we’d done and our favorite creative hiking meals.  I’ve found that a lot of discussions with other hikers come down to these two topics.  We left the hut at slightly different times with me being the last to go at a quarter past one.

John Tate Hut

I took a very relaxed pace for the day, thoroughly enjoying every minute.  During the final 8km before Upper Travers Hut the trail began to climb , but it was a gradual ascent that roughly followed the river up toward Mt Travers.

Forest Trail

The entire day was amazing but if I had to pick the best part it was Travers Falls where I stopped for twenty minutes to take it in.  I made a video of it in the hope to capture the sight and sound of the experience.  The roaring water vibrated the air around me as I sat enjoying the view..

Travers Falls

Well, trying to upload the video keeps giving me a “media error”.  So the above photo will need to suffice until I gain more video technical skills.  Trust me.  It was awesome!

Bridge Over Troubled Waters

There was a river falling almost straight down the side of the mountain which was a surprising and amazing sight falling about 300m.  The photo below does not do it justice.  This was a very close second for sight of the day award.

Almost a Waterfall on Mountainside

As a broke out of the forest, Upper Travers Hut came into view along with a great view of Mt Travers and the pass we will be climbing over tomorrow.

Upper Travers Hut

A Canadian TA hiker (Andrew) joined us at the hut.  He started the TA hike in Reinga on the same day as Rory and Joerg and knew them well.  It seems that everyone on the TA Trail knows everyone else with  3 or fewer degrees of separation.