NO PHOTOS - TOO WET TO GET CAMERA OUT!

Hike: 8km

After a toasty night in the hut people started rising when it was still dark but not us! When we could see without head torches we got up, had breakfast and began the drying process in earnest. We'd stupidly (with hindsight) left our coats, dirty socks, pack covers and the tent outside on the veranda and everything left out there was still dripping wet and cold! Scott stoked the fire and as people set off for the day we spread our belongings around in an effort to get things dry!

In keeping with tradition we were the last to leave and set off the car park adn our lift back to Kinlock Lodge. The short hike out took us mainly through beech forest and some open valley. On the walk we met Sophie and Sam, a french coupl ewho had spent the last 4 months working at Kinloch Lodge as a waitress and chef and were on their last trip in the area befopre moving on. They had been at the same hut as us last night but it was too dark for us to see them by the time we sat down! We walked with them for a while before we they took the trouth fishing route! We got to the car park in plenty of time for the bus (enough time to make a brew and eat some cheese and crackers!). The weather today was fine as we set off and beautiful by the time we finished! Still, we kept the camera safely wrapped up just in case, we'd had such a shock the day before.

We enjoyed the ride back to Kinloch as Toni, the owner had brought her three super-lively children along for the ride. We got to sing "Heads, Fingers, Knees and Toes" when two year old Lucy shut her finger in the window. We did the laundry, had a much needed hot shower and got to the bar in time for pre-dinner beers. We had booked to have dinner at the Lodge restaurant as we couldn't carry enough food on the bikes from Queenstown to feed us on the last night! The restaurant was really cool and thwey worked by putting groups of people together to fill the tables. Scott and I were seated with Leslie and Robin from near Hamilton in the North Island and Val and Mike from Chesire. You couldn't have had a more diverse group of people but we had such a fun evening! Leslie had just walked the Routeburn track over five days while her husband stayed at the lodge and did some cycling - he'd been a pro road cyclist in France in the late 1950's and his brother was an Olympic bronze medallist in a track cycling event! Val and Mike were visitng a daughter and new grandson in Queenstown and Mike apparently owned British Aluminium! He was very modest and very posh. All of them were really nice to us too and we had a super time! After dinner we chatted to Sophie and Sam (who relished being cooked for and served in the restaurant they's worked in), Tara who was a receptionist at the lodge (but had worked in TV production and lived in Barnes until recently) and the owners, Toni and John. It turned out that Toni had done a round the world cycle in 1997 and put our wee effort to shame!

Despite the rain we had had a brilliant adventure on the Routeburn and Greenstone Tracks and definitley want to do more tramping! We learned that we need to take pack liners, leave the tent at home and use DOC huts and also that our food choices are now optimised!