Te Araroa Trail Locke Stream Hut (zero day)
We all enjoyed a sleep-in until about 9.30 am and went out to check the river level. It was still high, and we didn’t want to risk any crossings today, so decided to take a zero day at Locke Stream hut. We spent a long time fantasising about the cooked breakfast we’d like to eat, whilst eating our porridge /other assorted boring breakfasts. Our conversation turned to farming (Mike’s a dairy farmer and Phil works in the dairy industry) so I was enlightened on many different subjects.
We spent the morning playing cards then we watched another movie on my phone, ate, then went back to more cards.
At around 3 pm the French couple came in. They’d walked through the rain all day and were drenched. They’d set off in a brief 30-minute clear slot where the sun peeked through the cloud, but unfortunately, it was very short lived. We couldn’t believe they didn’t have any significant troubles with the river crossings.
At around 5 pm three young Aussie guys turned up, equally as soaked. They were sweet boys, and provided some great entertainment as they made their dinner and tried unsuccessfully to get a fire going.
We all ate early and went to bed early. My wet clothes from yesterday still weren’t dry so I wore them to bed (over my bedtime merinos) to dry them with my body heat. Not all that nice, and a bit smelly, but it would be nice to start the day with dry clothes tomorrow!
As we drifted off to sleep we listened to the mice running around in the main room outside.