We woke up well rested and ready to take on the rest of the Demon Trail. We were able to enjoy our breakfast at the hut, looking out over Lake McKerrow. We couldn’t help marveling at the fact that this looked as if it would be our third day in a row with no rain.
We also had entertainment from a group of Fantails; we had seen lots of these birds the previous day following us through the forest eating the sandflies that hung around us. This morning, they seemed intent on making their way inside the hut and were constantly fluttering at the door and windows.
We left the hut making our way along the next section of the Demon Trail. Picking our way over the rough trail through the dense forest, it was hard to get a sense of our progress.
We crossed another couple of three-wire bridges over larger streams and carefully made our way across some of the smaller ones that crossed the trail. We realised how lucky we had been with the weather as these river crossings would have been a lot trickier if the water levels were higher.
After lunch we came to the most dramatic three-wire bridge we had encountered on the trip. Much longer than the others we had crossed, this bridge was also much higher above the river than the previous bridges. With legs already tired from climbing over the rocks on the Demon Trail, we made our way cautiously across the bridge. Despite having had a good amount of practice on these bridges, balancing across a half inch (13 mm) cable with slippery shoes and a heavy rucksack isn’t easy!
The Demon Trail continued to live up to its name, with steep sections over slippery rocks. The rough trail meant that we were making very slow progress, but occasionally we stopped to appreciate the lush forest around us.
Eventually the track started to improve a little and we knew we were getting close to Hokuri Hut. Occasionally we would get a break in the forest and could look out over Lake McKerrow.
We arrived at the hut and were happy to get settled in and rest our legs for a while and admire some of the bruises we had gained from slipping on the rocks. After dinner we took the short track down to the beach on Lake McKerrow and enjoyed watching the light changing over the mountains.
As we looked down the lake we could see that the ocean didn’t look to be quite so far away anymore. It also looked as if our route for the next day would be pretty flat as we covered the last part of the track.
We spent some time on the beach watching the stars, with the lower hills and no light pollution we were able to get a great view of the Milky Way and some of the other constellations.