There’s always one in the crowd isn’t there? That ‘rules person’, the bossy cow who has to enforce the rules. The female ‘hut rules’ enforcer! What such small lives those people have! And one of them is in the first hut, the Hidden Falls hut. She nearly blew a gasket when Mike didn’t immediately take off his boots! Hut dynamics according to Mike (and a bit of inexperience on her part).

Anyway, I have made it to the Hidden Falls hut. My boots are pretty good, pack was not too heavy or painful to carry. Of course it was only 2.5 hours into this hut and some of

that was taken up with photo shots. It’s great that my brother Mike likes photography, or it would be a real drag for him every time I wanted to stop for a photo. I had to check a few times with Mike to see if the scene would be repeated, so as to determine if it was worth taking off the pack and getting the camera out or ‘down pack worthy’ as I came to think of it.

As we came towards and closer to the start of the track I got quite a knot in my stomach at the challenge ahead. The track was however, much as I expected. Rough and smooth surfaces, lot of ferns and beech trees, and we had a special treat of viewing riflemen birds in a rata tree in flower. They were acting a lot like humming birds – hovering below the flowers.

I have taken a lot of photos already. Well, am a bit bored with writing now! So am gonna have some dinner and stop writing.