Why did we need change on a hiking trip, you're probably not asking? Well I'll tell you anyway. Another thing about this trail that's a bit different from the other ones we've done so far is that you don't book your campsites in advance. This meant we could change plans on trail, which was pretty great, but also that we needed to carry cash in the right amounts to leave at the DOC site. (You get a little tag to display on your tent to show that you've paid.)
The trail was muddy, and I may have at one point slid through it on my butt. I wish I could say it was graceful or intentional, but you know how it went down. There were probably a lot more stream and waterfall crossings than you'd encounter in a drier season, but we thought that was kind of fun. For about a kilometer at the beginning we were walking uphill through a freshly-formed stream running down our path, which was surprisingly not as hazardous as the mud. I'm learning that for peak slipperiness mud can't be too wet or too dry. There's a perfect medium it has to reach to really knock you on your ass.
I should probably mention that we didn't start our hike that day until 10:30am, when the water taxi dropped us off at the starting point. It was glorious though, because during the 90 minutes we were on that taxi we saw seals! And dolphins! They came up and swam right alongside our boat, and we wondered whether they actually were trying to warn us of the impending destruction of our planet. If only we spoke dolphin.
Anyway, at this point this entry's timeline is about as convoluted as a Christopher Nolan movie, so I'm going to wrap this up with pictures of the breakfast we treated ourselves to on Easter morning on the last day of our hike. It was at a real honest to god restaurant on the trail. The height of fanciness. Maybe it will inspire you to cook yourself up some eggs on ciabatta. Yum!