Te Araroa, Day 94

I start walking just before 6:30. Daylight is coming later and later now. Taking my first few steps, it looks like easy walking:

Unfortunately this did not last. Very soon I enter a forest and walking becomes hard. The mud is there immediately:

There is also a lot of water, small stream crossings, passages that require walking in small streams and again and again steep passages. 

Feet are wet of course and the two bridges that appeared this morning are only there because walking through the rivers below would not have been possible:

The forest gets not better, many fallen trees everywhere. 

Then a lake suddenly is visible through the trees and shortly afterwards I get out of the forest. 

Unfortunately about 300m further I have to enter the forest again and it is not easier. Besides the tree climbing there are now sections with dense growth one somehow has to squeeze through:

I can see that there is a tussock plain next to the forest with a lot of cattle. I decide to exit the forest and walk on the uneven tussock, parallel to the forest edge. It works quite well. At some point, I have to navigate through a herd of bulls to reconnect with the trail and cross another bridge. Life on the trail is not easy.

After crossing the bridge, there is some more walking through the forest to reach Hurunui hut. X had been there already for almost an hour and continues on while I prepare one of my freeze-dried meals. I realized that I need to have one of those at midday as well as in the evenings to maintain enough energy for those long days in the mountains.

Then the forest climbs continue always alternated with mud sections...

I pass Hurunui 3 Hut at some point and enter the last section leading to Cameron's Hut. Before I exit the forest for the final few hundred meters, there is a three-wire bridge. Upon seeing this, I quickly check if I could walk through the river instead. No, the river is too deep here. With no choice, I embark on that wire, loaded with my backpack and holding my trekking poles in one hand. It is manageable.

There is some walking out of the forest before I finally reach Cameron's hut around 5:30.

I see the hut and the tent of X. I wonder if there are already people in the hut. I open the hut. It is old and impossible to stay in. Nevertheless X is hiding inside from the countless sandflies. 
I set up my tent, get a wash in the river and carry some water up for dinner etc. After dinner in the hut I rush into my tent, escaping from the sandflies outside.