heaphy track

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hiked Heaphy Track starting Kotaitai,first night Lewis Hut,second night Goulan downs Hut,then out to drive to blenheim in brother's car while he picked up my van at Kohaihai and drove to meet me at Blenheim.Got bad blisters on soles of both feet and had to endure a lot of pain to get to the finish.I think they might have been avoided if I had worn puttees to stop little stones getting into my boots.Also my pack was too heavy,mainly because I took a small gas cooker and a kettle but all huts except one have gas and pots and kettles. There are good facilities except at Goulan downs which has no gas cooker and the open fire emits too much smoke--so much that it set off the smoke alarm at 2am!!
Highlights are the little brave robins which if you keep still will hop toward you and daringly come right up to your boots;the nikau palms;the fun swing bridges,the tussock landscape of the Goulan Heights;the wild West coast surf;the bellbirds which are quite prolific on the route between Browns hut and Perry Saddle;and the weka I saw up close for the first time at two of the huts. i took a warm coat b ut on reflection it would have been better to stick to my gore-text raincoat and my polyprops cos i wore the warm coat one morning and it got wet and then heavy and hard to dry out.

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