My second 2-day tramp, which lead me along the Toaroha River into the Cedar Flat.

Taking advantage of the amazingly sunny (though still rather cool) weather, I went into the Valley to the Cedar Flat Hut. The track I followed was the first part of a longer, four to five day track, which would certainly be interesting to do. But due to several lacking on my side (like experience or equipment or just anything) I only did the first part.

The track to Cedar Flat Hut was actually only about 3.5 h, maybe 4 h one-way, or about 12 km. So I took the remaining time after I arrived, to go to some close-by hot pools, to soak my feet in after the walk. Wouldn’t it been so cold, I might just have gone in all the way. The water had just the perfect temperature for it. Another time, another hot pool maybe…

Anyway, to reach the hot pool, I actually had to wade through the creek, as I couldn’t find a way just hopping over stones. Unfortunately, the shoes I have, are just not made for that and they have been soaking immediately with ice cold water. I decided to do that anyway, as I knew, that I’d be able to dry them over night in front of the fire place in the hut. But I will very likely buy some new, proper hiking boots not before long. It just sucks, when you get wet feet (literally and sometimes metaphorically), while crossing some stream and you dip your feet in there accidentally. So, those shoes have unfortunately been a bad investment…

The track was alternating between rocky sections on the river bed and green, muddy sections on the valley side through the woods. While the track is on the right side of the river (looking downstream), the hut is on the left side. Luckily, there is a swing bridge just before you reach the hut. That bridge lived up to its name and was quite swingy, if you went over it in a steady pace. So one Silly Walk later, I was across the river safely.

After my trip to to the hot pools, I tried to get the fire going in the hut, which took me a while to get going properly, as there was not good, dry wood around. But after having good embers and stuffing the fire place as much as possible, the wood started to dry and eventually burned properly. I spent most of the evening preparing more fire wood (much more, than I actually needed, but it was kind of fun), reading and star gazing.

The next morning before going home I wanted to continue the main valley track further into the backcountry, but was stopped after maybe half an hour by a creek, that seemed impassable to me, without wet feet in these shoes… So I went back and took another route for a while, until finally getting my stuff from the hut and going home the way I came.

All in all, totally worth it and I must seriously do that more often… Even now in the winter, especially when the sun is shining, tramping is unproblematic. I shouldn’t use the “cold” weather as a bad excuse…

There is probably more to tell, but as always, I tend to forget, while I write. Oh yeah, for example, this time I didn’t meet a soul and was all alone.