Well, that's the worst over and done with...

Breakfast. There is a technical tramping term used to describe those who rise in the semidark while others sleep:
"Bag rustlers".

That's noise, not theft.

Out the window the sun is just dealing to the last scraps of mist and it looks like another bluedome day. A distant passenger jet marks the morning sky.

Despite my aches and pains the evening before, I am in remarkably good shape.

I break out the teabags, and powdered milk. Now for the muesli and the protein powder. Got to be good for me. Hmmmm.

(I got onto the idea of a protein component in every meal through the Zone Diet. The thinking is that the presence of protein in any meal or snack enables the body to access fat reserves that would otherwise remain unavailable. Extra energy resources and an opportunity to slim. I do lose 3 kg over the week.

The chocolate-flavoured protein powder is disgustingly sweet, being in all likelihood made in the first place for the US market. I'm not sure how genuine the "chocolate" flavour is either. One thing I am sure about: the vanilla version is a hundred times worse.)

Miranda has ordered up some high cloud to take the bite out of the sun, and that arrives around the time we emerge onto the downs. But for now, it's off into the manuka, and we're still fresh enough to pay attention to the flowers along the way.

The path is quite variable underfoot and repays a bit of attention. I am really glad to have good boots here.

Small grottoes abound along the way each with their small stream cutting across the path or under one of the innumerable small plank bridges DOC provides along the track. There is a certain attractive quality about them I can't quite put my finger on.

The bush closes in overhead and we are in, for a short period, in tunnel mode again.

I am interested in the way we join up and spread out along the track. Sometimes we're all just a yard or two apart, and other times we can be spread over half a km or more.

 

 

Advice: Heaphy

Browns to Perry Saddle
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Perry Saddle to Saxon
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Saxon to Mackay
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Mackay to Lewis
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Lewis to Heaphy
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Heaphy to Kohaihai
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