Start – Mangaehuehu Hut
Finish – Mangaturuturu Hut
Daily Distance – 15 km
TA Distance – off-trail
One of the finest days hiking of the trip so far. My trail Christmas present has been the first sunny day of
the circuit combined with the most spectacular scenery so far. The day started pretty slowly with coffee
and stealthily playing Christmas songs to avoid waking the other slumbering hut users. They clearly hate
Christmas as nobody else was awake to share festive cheer with until at least 7:30. Most unreasonable!
The terrain today can be broadly divided into 3 sections. The first few hours were mainly beech forest,
which was nice. The second part was an hour walking up a beautiful alpine road towards the Mt Ruapehu
ski fields. The finest section was saved for last though. The final few hours were spent scrambling about
on old lava flows and walking among a cascading series of waterfalls that my photos have certainly not
done justice.
By early afternoon I arrived at the hut and settled down for a relaxing end to the day. Hours were spent
reading perched on a boulder in the middle of a nearby stream and talking with other folk who are staying
at the hut tonight. These included Marie who works for the department of conservation, TA trampers
Carol (Taiwan), Will (UK) and Astrid (NZ), and a Kiwi family Joyce, Tom and Lucy who are on their
xmas holidays. David who has been my hut-mate for the last few nights also stopped by, but
unfortunately had to carry on in order to meet his bus tomorrow. Busy times.
It was nice to have a great hike and busy hut today as I have been missing home more than usual today.
Christmas isn’t quite the same without family and friends to share it with, but today has at least been a
good substitute. Merry Christmas everyone
