When going to the washroom first thing in the morning – those long drop toilets a half a minute away from the hut – there was moisture in the air outside. By the time we were ready to start walking, it was steadily drizzling, so we put on our rain jacket and rain pants and put the pack covers on our backpacks. Today was just a matter of walking out the 17.5 kms gradually downhill (most of the way) to Brown hut. We had taken pictures along the way and admired the view from the lookout three days earlier, so no problem if the weather was not great for pictures today. Walking in the rain was actually still enjoyable, as much of the trail is in the beech forest, although the forest became wet enough to start dripping on us after a while. The walk became somewhat less enjoyable when our waterproof hiking shoes started letting in water, and it was not a matter of our socks leading water into our shoes this time. Every step we took we got this squishy feeling which was not great. Not sure what happened to our shoes for them not to be waterproof anymore. I must say I was rather disillusioned with my hiking shoes and may have expressed my disappointment multiple times on the walk down. Regardless of the wet shoes, the rest of us and our packs stayed mostly dry and we made good time to Brown hut where we ate our lunch. The Canadian fellow with whom we talked the day before caught up to us there and told us that 10 to 15 minutes after we left the Gouland Downs hut area, two takahe appeared right by the hut. He showed us some nice video footage of them. Too bad we just missed the takahe, but we were happy for him as he finally got to see them in the wild.
Back at the car we peeled off all of our wet things including the soggy shoes and started the long drive to the other end of the Heaphy Track at 1:45pm or so. We had figured we would treat ourselves to a cabin in Murchison, approximately halfway, at the campground where we tented four years earlier. As the price of a cabin was very reasonable, I booked online as we were driving only to find an email from the place in junk mail hours later “unconfirming” my booking saying that “sorry we are full”. We checked out a basic cabin at a different campground in Murchison after which we decided that we’d actually rather tent there as there was no rain in the forecast, so that’s what we did.
Clouds surrounded Perry Saddle hut in the morning
The views were not the same in cloudy, rainy weather
Quick stop for a snack
Completion of four days of Heaphy Track!
We drove through the small, artsy town of Takaka
Supper on the deck overlooking the Murchison River
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