By Elliot

We woke up this morning, ready for a day in the hut. On the other hand, Jamie was looking to go on to the next hut. So we bid our goodbyes and wished him well.

Less than an hour later, he was back. The wind on the ridge had been so bad that he’d decided to turn around. It probably didn’t help that the visibility was awful as well.

So we spent the morning chatting and reading our books. Between around 9 and 12 it started raining heavily. That, coupled with the wind, made us happy with our decision to stay put. After we had lunch, two hikers showed up, soaking wet. We were hoping no one else would come up due to the weather, so that we would have the hut to ourselves. And those two decided to push on to the next hut.

But then another one came, and another. And another. By the end of the day there were 12 people in the hut. Jamie decided to go outside and set up his tent.

We’ve managed to avoid the TA bubble for a while. We were alone on the Whanganui river. We had the earlier huts on this section to ourselves. But it seems the TA has finally caught up to us. And it’s overwhelming, suddenly talking to and dealing with this many people. I’m worried about what the South Island will be like, given all these people, plus the people who are only doing the South Island, plus non TAs just hiking the nice sections of the South Island that we will also be doing.