Port William Hut

After the fun lunch at Maori Beach which ended with swarms of sand flies discovering our location, we kept trudging along the track. At this point it seemed to go mostly uphill. After what seemed like forever, but turns out was about 4 1/2 hours from when we started, we found Port William Hut. Yeah!

This is really something New Zealand has gotten right. I love these DOC huts which make camping not so bad. Usually I love hiking but can't stand setting up a tent and sleeping on the ground not to mention the whole bathroom situation. These huts make things considerably easier.

Look who's turned up! Our dog Pocket! He came on this trip with us; apparently he was waiting for a big trip before joining in on our adventures this winter.

The hut at Port William was very large. This is the kitchen/common area with running water, a heating stove (which took a while to get going since the wood was damp), and tables and benches. We needed to bring along our cooking stove and supplies, but there was firewood behind the hut even if some of it was damp and needed to be chopped.

You won't see many pictures of Dan on this trip. He was the trip photographer and generally stayed well behind the camera.