Day 81 | Clent Hills Saddle
2 January 2023 | 20°C | 33km
Easy walk in the morning. Kiwis still seem to enjoy their holidays. We see a few families cruising around with their jeeps and pick up’s going fishing or hunting.
We admire the scenery at a beautiful lake that reflects the mountains around when a car arrives. A couple from Tasmania who is on vacation in New Zealand. While Stuart is fly fishing, we are having a conversation with Katie. There’s are quite some mosquitoes around but luckily she is equipped with an anti-mosquito spray that she is spraying all around us to make sure we are not bitten.
When reaching Double Hut in the afternoon where we had initially planned to spend the night, it is only 4PM.
“I will not make it to the saddle today but camp somewhere before that” is what I say halfway up on Clent Hill. Somehow my ankle started hurting in the morning already. Problem is that there are not very many flat spots to camp. Once we detect one, we don’t have any water, once we get to the next stream, a potentially good spot is very rocky, so we keep on moving over the next hill.
We are so picky about camp spots that suddenly the saddle comes into sight. Saddles tend to be pretty windy and not a great place to camp, is what I think.
But then surprise! Walking to the very right side, we unexpectedly find a fantastic camp spot with great views back into the valley with beautiful sunset.
Once more a rewarding, happy end at the end of a long, hiking day!
