Elder and Snowy 23-24 February

Over Kapakapanui and up to Elder hut, then out via the Snowy river
Saturday, 23 February 2013

The day started off well, the rata was in blossom

We had a good walk up Kapakapanui

As we started down the other side we had great views of the Southern Crossing

Renata hut

Looking up Renata Ridge towards Elder hut and Mt Aston

Bagged my last Tararua hut - woo hoo! (then I drank a beer, shed a few tears and said a few words)

The view from Elder hut looking back at Kapakapanui

Elder hut and our camp ground top centre (photo taken by Tony the following weekend as he was flying over)

and now for the close up!

We found some good comfy moss to sleep on

Moon over Hector - I feel a howl coming on waaooohhh!!!

It was fair to say there were a few flies hanging around the loo the next morning

We headed off Sunday to search for Snowy hut

Looking down the spur towards Snowy

Chris

Tony and Sue fighting with a tree

a fresh wallow - there be a sexy beast not that far away

Just think, in 500 years or so these cute little fellas could look like...

...this magnificant giant

We made it to the Eastern Waitararu river and started the search for Snowy hut

But lost interest and went swimming instead

Meanwhile, in another part of the world, a second group was heading our way

They were fast and mean and had a strong determination to beat us to Snowy hut (she looks mean don't you think?)

Okay so we found it eventually

and yes the other group bet us...by an hour (show offs)

The multi coloured, camouflaged tin. Nice shot Pete!

The Eastern (L) and Southern Waitararu rivers (R) meet to become the Waitararu river...and this is where it happens-how cool is that!

Mike trying to keep Alex from drowning and keep both their packs dry (I was going to help, but frankly it was more fun just to watch)

We met this strange zombie like man

He followed us but most of the time just lounged around

GPS - 37kms