Heaphy Track - Day 1 Brown River to Perry Hut. 17.5km

Our plan is to walk for five days from east to west through Kahurangi National Park.

We are promised good weather.  

Day one takes us to 910m the highest point on the track at Flanagans Corner.  It is a gentle climb.

Packs on and ready to walk.

Come walk with us.

Danielle, Pete, Dick, Bill and Paula

 Let's go.

Throughout the day we botanise.
Bill and Paula know this place and its inhabitants.
We are walking through virgin forest with kamahi, beech, rata and quintinia today.

Southern rata

Lunch stop - brings smiles all round.

Thanks  for this photo Danielle

The Thermette triggers comforting childhood memories. 

After lunch I walk on thinking about my father. He loaned me his boots and two pairs of Norsewear socks for my first hike in the Nelson Lakes. I can hear him say "All you need to do is put one foot in front of the other." 

A timely reminder.  I have another 70km to walk on this hike.

 Bill

and Paula.

 Two fit fellows.
Derry and Andy meet us on the trail. Andy had left us at the start of the track and had delivered supplies to Perry Hut and was well on the way back down when we meet him. Derry 'walks' the track in 1 1/2 days and relocates vehicles for trampers from one end of the track to the other.

 Photograph: Pete
The lookout at the highest point on the track at Flanagans Corner
.
It's all downhill from here... if you believe everything you hear.

 Dracophyllum

Keep walking through the virgin kamahi forest...

and Perry Hut will appear.

My heart leaps with delight when I meet Richard, John and William Lintott as they arrive at Perry
Hut. 30 years separate each generation.

 It is Census night in New Zealand.
Danielle and Pete complete their forms.
We didn't expect to see the census forms in the wilderness. We have completed ours on line.

The hut is full. Japanese, American, German and kiwi walkers.

And so to bed.