Friday 5th May
Bark Bay Hut to Awaroa Hut – 13.4km, 4;57hrs (1;36 stopping time)

We woke early and DB went for a sunrise walk and I had a lazy read. After brekky I went for a walk to check out the beach and met a local fisherman who stayed in a batch (holiday house). He said it was so busy there in summer. Waterways are so noisy. He also said people are too busy racing to the next hut to enjoy what there was right there. He had worked in Sale in Victoria as a 20yr old, and travelled as far north as Byron Bay. Was curious about sharks and attacks in Australia and thought it was mainly WA, so we obviously get a bit of news coverage over here. He also told me that a US millionaire had given $50million to eradicate the wilding pines that had taken over the national parks. This project is trying to restore the National Park & Marlborough Sounds to its natural state.

DB met the ranger who lives in her own shack next door. She cleans up after everyone left. She said the campsites had really quietened down. Everyone was pretty tidy. They are quite clever. They have signs like “Thank you for bringing wood inside and cutting kindling for the next visitors” or “Thank you for leaving the area nice and clean”. Everyone seemed to make an effort to leave the place tidy.

Anyway off on our next days hike. Only 4.5 hrs today so we took it pretty easy. Stopped after the first hour for a 45 min morning tea break relaxing on the beach. We are really enjoying this type of hiking we are already talking about the next one and what we need to buy. First thing is proper hiking backpacks to help our backs a bit.

We enjoyed the views again today, it was a little tougher elevation wise, it seemed like we no sooner went down a slope then we were going back up again. On looking at the hiking statistics it really wasn’t that high at all. Obviously my little old body is feeling the effects of the number of days hiking in a row. Carrying a pack also affects this as well but the packs are getting lighter each day as we eat our food and I am getting used to the weight.

We arrived at the hut at Awaroa at about 3.30 today. Still too late to get a bottom bunk but at least we could still get a bed side by side.

We had lots of stops today as it was a reasonably short hike.

We talked a bit more to the people at the hut today, a lot of them were with us last night as well. There are people from New ZeLand, UK, Germany, Czech Republic, Argentina, Italy, Japan. It is really interesting.

Well that is 2 days done with only 2 to go. It is still fun.  Looking forward to new territory again tomorrow.