Exploded!

Friday 23rd March. While Marie-Laure buy a few supplies for our next days of tramping, I bring the car back to the car rental agency. The sun is rising. I have to walk 30 minutes to go back to the campsite. The tops of the mountains are covered by the snow that fell down yesterday and during the night, but the sky is blue and soon, the sun appears. 

We booked a shuttle that will bring us to the trailhead of Greenstone track. From there, we follow an easy trail that leads us to Greenstone hut.

It's a pretty popular place, close to Routeburn track. As a result, when we reach the hut, it's more than full. The 20 bunks are occupied and 3 tents are already pitched outside.
Our friend Jenny is here as well and she's got a bed because she arrived a lot earlier than us.

I don't like when the huts are as full as this one. That's too many people and I don't even want to interact in that kind of situation. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better, cause it's a less popular tramping track. Still, I exchange à few words with a French Te Araroa hikers. His name is Vincent and he is a biologist. He made a map of the edible plants on Te Araroa that anyone reading French can find on Internet and use for free.

So we pitch the tent, on the flatest place possible. And we go to bed early, at 7:30.
BOOM ! We both nearly get an heart attack with the loud bang. What's that? BOOM! This time I can identify the origin of the loud noise. Well... It seems that my mattress has got another problem now. Soon, 2 other bangs make me realize that I need to find another solution for tonight if we don't want to wake up in the middle of the night with a loud boom or bang.

No way I can sleep on that

Jenny is kind enough to let me her sleeping mat for the night. She has exactly the same model as me but hers doesn't explode when I lay on it.

Saturday 24th is a beautiful day. We have our lunch with Jenny at Taipo hut. We can go to the next, Boundary hut. Jenny even decides to go further, to Careys hut.

But I don't feel like going further, so we stop at Boundary hut. After some time, we hear that a 4WD and some motos are coming in our direction. The 4WD get stuck in a big pool of mud. Apparently, the young guy driving his parent's truck was a little too optimistic about the engine.

Another couple and ourselves try to help them out, but they are completely stuck. They'll need some help from another 4WD.

Vincent joins us a bit later. But the hut has 4 beds only and all of them are occupied. Marie-Laure and me decide to share a mattress to allow Vincent to sleep on one as well. They are quite wide and we know we'll sleep well on it even if we share it.

Picture made by Vincent 

Sunday 25th is the day we will reach Te Anau. We leave the hut relatively early and we hike with Vincent, talking about our jobs, our travels, our dreams. Time flies (and we hike pretty fast the 16 kilometers) and soon we reach the campground that is at the end of the dirt road. From here, we'll hitchhike to Te Anau. It's pretty easy to get the first rides to the State Highway. But when we reach there, we're kind of stuck. After waiting 2 hours in the wind, with so many half full cars passing us, Marie-Laure decides to call a taxi. It's expensive but we're cold and tired. Can't wait to be at the youth hostel!
We'll spend the evening with Vincent at the pizzeria and then take a long hot shower before collapsing in our beds at 9.