Rain rain go away! Today was a fairly easy walk, 8km. But man my ankle is sore, I minced along slowly for the day. The rain was relentless, we got over it pretty fast but we sure got wet! At the top of the park was a shelter so we relaxed in there and dried off a bit before setting off again. I can handle ups a lot better than flat or going down hill. There was about equal of both. The rain finally stopped about 30min before we hit the hut, so we dried out a little.

Once we arrived it just rained and rained some more. Originally we had planned to stay here, but yesterday we thought about walking a further 3km today to get a bit further and make the following day easier. Well I really couldn’t walk anymore so we are staying here tonight. Looks like we will have the place to ourselves which will be fantastic. This hut has been erected by the Te Araroa Trust, it is well designed and thought out. This is on council land so they must have gotten permission to put it here. I am hoping I can be moving faster tomorrow, I don’t want to take time off for this silly ankle. There are a few books left in the hut and I have taken one to read, Wild Journeys by Bruce Ansley. I will pass it on when I have finished with it. The sandflies and mosquitos seem to be okay here. We went down to the stream, got naked and washed. I didn’t get in as I was worried about balance so Rowan handed me up bottles full of water to splash on myself. It has taken a few hours to warm back up again. Tonight we have teriyaki spam for dinner, it is surprisingly good.