Hollyford Track Day 2 – Demon Trail Hut

January 11th, 2003 at 12:00am

It’s raining hard in Firodland today. I was going to do a longer day, like 26 km, but the rain and slippery rocks, roots, and trail made it enough for me to do a mere 16 km (10 miles). It was slow-oing through the many sloppy sections of mud and countless blowdowns on the trail. I’ve started part of the Demon Trail, which is said to be’the most exhausting non-alpine track in New Zealand,’ and consists of’undulating rocky sections following the steep shoreline of the lake.’ Not a fun task to negotiate such a trail in heavy rain. So I decided to leave the rest of it (another 9 km) for tomorrow in hopes that the weather clears.

At this hut tonight there are 3 of us so far – the Japanese guy from last night and a new guy who just showed up (from Czech Republic). Anyway I hope the weather clears up some – don’t mind showers but heavy rain is the pits. The sandfly population only seems to be increasing as I go further into this track. Today my mind was wandering back to Thailand and the days of pedicures, massages, and long afternoons in the hammock on the beach. Why did I want to come to New Zealand anyway? Can’t remember at the moment!

Morning at Lake Alabaster Hut

The rain can be beautiful sometimes

Evening at Demon Trail Hut

Entry Filed under: Hiking/Trekking,Hollyford,New Zealand