Heaphy Great Walk Day 2

grasslands

vibrant green moss

swing bridge

ice cold water but very sore feet

Day Two started early, waaaaaay too early. That old couple who was using the guide as their pack mule decided 5:30 am would be a good time to get up and start banging pots around in the kitchen. As they rudely talked in raised voices and tried to make their precious tea, everyone else in our hut was woken up. We will add a little bit about this couple as we go along, but one fun fact is that they had to pay $3,200 total for Steven (the guide) and his services. Wait until you hear about the food Steven was making them everyday.... Anyways after trying to ignore the noise for close to two hours we peeled ourselves out of bed and ate a quick nugo bar and one orange breakfast before hitting the trail.

Day 2 was mainly flat, but it was also 27 km long and would eventually take us nearly 6 hours to complete (over 16 miles). The weather all day was absolutely gorgeous, no clouds in the sky, and sunshine beaming down from sun up to sun down. Day 2 immediately became gorgeous. We followed a small valley in between two peaks and emerged to a high altitude grassland. The grassland was surrounded by mountains on all sides and Kyle immediately decided it looked very similar to the Lion King (that may have been a stretch, but it was pretty epic). The grasslands were interesting because from time to time they rolling hills would drop down into deep gullys that had a completely different ecosystem. The bottom of the gullys had fast moving rivers and tree and bush growth that was not seen anywhere else on the plains. As we crossed the grasslands we encountered the first of many odd bridges on the Heaphy- "swing bridges". These bridges will all be replaced by this time next year because they can only take one person at a time, are incredibly old, and many trekkers are afraid to cross them. They bounce up and down, sway side to side, and are very sketchy to get on and off. 

After reaching the far side of the grasslands we picked our way along the bottom of rolling hills. When we finally reached the Mackay hut after a long six hours we headed down to a small and frigid stream to soak our feet and try to recover from the long day. That night we spent a very long time talking and hanging out with Steven. This was interrupted from time to time when the old rich lady needed her teacup refilled or was demanding where another bottle of wine could be found. Their food for the trip was served to them on nice plates with real silverware- Steven made them Thai curry and noodles on night one, spaghetti bolognese on night two, and couscous and salmon on night three. Each of these meals was preceded by a bottle of wine, crackers, feta, olives, and other gourmet treats. (Number of times this couple said thank you or showed any signs of gratitude the entire trip: 0.)  Anyway after hanging with Steven, we went to bed and were again hit with snoring loud enough drive you crazy.