The Belgian Travellers

Thursday 8th February is a zero day in Hanmer Springs (meaning a zero kilometers day, in other words, we rested), between laundry, vegetables, fruits and hot pools. We met Arne again, but he has a bad pain to his leg, so bad that he actually decided to stop and rest for a while. One of the American girls, Maria, also have to stop for a health problem. The trail is sometimes a real strain for our bodies...  On Friday, we leave our hostel early morning. After 2 hours of hitchhiking, someone eventually stops. We reach the trailhead, from where we cross a river on a swing bridge before starting to walk in a wide open valley.  At the first hut on the trail, we have a look at the hut book where we find a message for us: our friends, Sergio and Coyote, left it for us because we kind of missed each other in the Richmond range. They were hiking northbound for this stretch while we were going southbound, but we somehow managed to miss each other : we were at the Old Man Hut, tha...

After a nice rest day in St Arnaud and many expeditions to the nearby restaurant, including with Arne, a German hiker who celebrated his birthday, we were ready to hike again. On Friday 2nd of February, we were lucky enough to reach the hut while the rain started pouring. A few hours later, it was packed with many other hikers. 4 PM only and the rain stops. Okay, let's go to John Tait hut, signposted 5 hours away from here. Luckily, 3 hours and an half later, we were at John Tait, where a few other hikers are already, among them Cate and Tom. Tom is amazing : he started hiking on the Southern Island a few weeks ago. Still, he was able to hike as fast as most of us and he always keeps his smile. Saturday, 6:30, we leave the hut. Today might be challenging, with 1100 meters to climb and 1200 to descend. It's quite steep to reach the pass, but it's so beautiful that we nearly forget about our legs. We reach West Sabine hut earlier than expected, which gives us the ...

Tuesday 23rd - Wednesday 31st January 2018 After a wonderful rest day at Pelorus Heights B&B (a place that we would highly recommend if you are looking for a B&B near Havelock, the owners are really nice people), we were ready for the next stretch to St Arnaud. The weather forecast were nice and our pack was super heavy, with 10 days of food. We started hiking along the Pelorus River and its deep-blue waters. There were a few swing bridges that allowed us to cross the river without having to remove our shoes. And those swing bridges are always quite funny to cross. By 3 PM, we were at Middy Hut, ready to swim in the beautiful waters and relax after our day. We are a few people in the hut, but it's not too crowded. The next day, we wake up at 6. We start the day with a climb of 700 meters till Rocks Hut. The path goes then up and down till Browning Hut that we reach around 2:30 PM.  There, we discover that we forgot our spoons at Middy hut... No way that we go...