This was one of my favorite and most memorable days of New Zealand.
It started off by picking up some passes for the Mt. Fyffe Hut. The hut is maintained by the New Zealand Department of Conservation and a pass is required to spend a night in the hut. The pass is a steal at 5 NZD a night for an adult. This hut is well maintained, has 8 bunks with mattresses, back-country bathroom facilities, and a wood fired stove for cooking and heating. There is also a rainwater collection system for drinking water and washing dishes.
Next, we went to check out the Kaikoura seal colony. Mikey had already been there, but was nice enough to go back so that I could see it too. Seals are very good at blending in with their surroundings. Unless you get a close up picture of a seal, your seal pictures are most likely going to look like rock pictures.

On the way to the seal colony we noticed a Cray stand. Cray is crawfish in Kiwi. They were cooking up a few different things and we settled on Cray fritters. It was a good choice.

We were going to spend a night on the mountain which meant that we were going to need some food. The grocery store was next on the list. We decided to eat right on the mountain and settled on some steaks, potatoes, and vegetables for the evening meal. For breakfast we got some eggs and other tasty items not normally found on the trail. From the store, we headed off to the trailhead. Once there, we packed our bags and started our way up the mountain.

The trail is an access road making it not too hard to hike, but there is a good deal of elevation change. The hut is at 3600 feet in elevation. Below is a picture of Kaikoura from somewhere along the trail.

With some good conversation and Mikey’s good singing we made it up to the hut, dropped our bags, and attempted to summit Mt. Fyffe. After analyzing the pace Mikey and I were holding, we decided to head back to the hut and summit the peak the next day.



If you do make it up here, make sure to bring a cook kit and some cooking utensils. Mikey saved the day by bringing a cook kit. Without that, we would have had to get very creative preparing and eating our meal.

After doing some dishes Mikey and I got into the bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label he had purchased the night before. We also got some good games of Backgammon going before going to bed. Below is a picture of Kaikoura at night from the hut.

Tour progress so far:
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