Distance today: 49.9km
Distance total: 1504.5km
Time hiked: 7h 49min
Time total: 429h 41min
A lot of precipitation overnight but the water level seems to be the same as yesterday.
Day 3 is again very similar to the preceding days. The river is getting quieter, though. Less rapids and once past Pipiriki no jetboats anymore. Hannah doesn't complain ;)
On our way south, we surprisingly bump into Rose and Dylan. They started a day before us and take it slow to fully enjoy the river. How right they are! Our initial plan was staying somewhere near Koriniti Pa but decide to continue a little further downstream in order to spend the night with Rose and Dylan at Downes Hut.
A few kilometers upstream from the hut is the Marae of Koriniti. Unfortunately we miss the concealed landing and only realize our mishap 200 meters later. Shit. As I really want to have a look at the Marae I convince Hannah to paddle back upstream even though she's sure we won't be able to do it.
Luckily she's wrong and we make it back to the landing. Thanks Hannah for the hard work :)
The effort was well worth it. The Marae is beautiful.
The last kilometers to the hut in the slow moving stream is hard, monotonous work. Time is passing much slower than on the first two days and I really start missing hiking.
I go for a quick swim in the muddy river to cool down before carrying all my gear up to the cute, very Scanidavian looking hut. I'm delighted to see a fireplace with plenty of wood. So first and most important task: get the fire started!
By the time we eat dinner, the hut feels like a sauna - the fire still burning nicely. Perfect!
Definitely no sleeping needed tonight ;)
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