The bush is light and fairly open to start with.

Up we go, and it's mind your ankles. The track is rocky right to the top and down the other side. If it's wet or slippery you'd need to pay close attention.

There. that wasn't too difficult

As we regain our breath, a young German comes striding effortlessly up the other side, and stops to roll a cigarette at the top. Right.....

We head on down the other side.

Carol sets off a full speed and plans to meet us for lunch at the Rokeby hut. It's 11.30 and my reckoning has the Rokeby hut about two and a half hours away at fatman speed. I reckon I'll be hungry a touch before then, specially as I've been walking since 8.

The path winds down reasonably steeply, but nothing too daunting. It's rocky, but wide and generous for the most part. There's a lot of new plant life as we cross the divide. I haven't worked out why the beech forest, usually open and airy, will occasionally look like a bushcrasher's hell.

There are many small rocky streams and ferny grottoes on the way down

At the bottom, we emerge in the forest fringe.

It's a lot muddier on this side of the saddle, too.

We're out onto a fairly level, but uneven and lumpy valley floor.

We've seen a number of DoC sign posts on their sides, broken off. Vandalism this far from the road is unusual and this post may perhaps hold a clue:

I see the replacements are waratahs. I wonder if they'll be up to several hundred kilos of itchy steer.

We carry on beside the river for a while until just before 1 pm. It's beginning to drizzle a little, too, so we figure, if rain is on the way, we'd better have lunch before it gets here. We're still doing the crackers/ryvita and cheese and peanut butter and jam number, with some salami while it lasted. Seems to work well, and after several days we are still not tired of it.

We don't find out until later about the valley track, and assume that this is our only option.

I'd rather have gone down the valley. We arrive back at the riverbank in due course. The drizzle is somewhat heavier now and the wind has picked up a bit, fortunately blowing from behind us. We unpack our raingear.

We head on down the flats for a way, detouring now and again as the official track takes us up and away from the river.