Heaphy Track - day 2 Gouland Downs hut to Saxon Hut

We have some more off-track adventures this afternoon.

After lunch we follow the track for a short while and follow Bill to a rock overhang which was used in the past for shelter by men and their pack horses.

Further along we leave the track again to explore the enchanted garden.

 into caves... and a scramble up and out to the other side.

Dick finds some rock with small fossils.  

 An eerie mossclad landscape.

 Out onto the track and

down to a waterfall which has just a gentle shower of water.

 A couple of water crossings.

A Moss landscape.

1km from Saxon hut with powelliphanta snail signage. 

We saw several powelliphanta shells today.

 An historic milestone marker from the pack horse era.

 Saxon hut. Home for tonight...

 sleeping platforms and lounge...

 complete with an outside spa.

 Well done. 13km of walking on the track plus four off-track adventures.

Heaphy Track - Day 2 Part A - morning walk Perry Hut via Perry mountainside to Gouland Downs Hut

Adventures are in store today.

Blustery winds rolling over the pass accompany us.
Put on a jacket...

Come walk with us.

Our route today.  Saxon Hut to Lewis Hut, 24.1km

Recent track work.

Looking back to the Perry hut and the Douglas Range and Dragons Teeth in the far distance.

After one kilometre we leave our packs beside the track and head off up the flanks of Mt Perry.

An extraordinary magic garden landscape.

with sundew which glisten like rubies under a hand lens...

Tiny mushrooms

Leonohebe

Dracophyllum townsonii

huge lichens

Southern rata

Back on track...

we encounter DoC track workers...

and behold... a man on a motorcycle.

I am glad we stopped to talk.
Joe rode from Ushuaia to Oklahoma last year.
More to come on this chance meeting.

The path takes on a golden glow as we walk through kamahi and quintinia forests.

Out onto Gouland Downs where the path is white. The rock around here is granite.

Snowberries

The water is clear. Filtered by moss.

Celmisia dalii

I'd leave my purple stilettos here, too.

Lunchtime at Gouland Downs Hut.

with a welcome from a lone weka.