No hurry in the morning.
It’s after nine before I’m out of bed, it was around 9° C by then. 12 midday before I left the hut to have a walk up to the tarns under The Needle.
Many people pilgrimage here to do the climb, good view apparently.
I’m not so keen, my limbs are tired after all the recent walking, particularly yesterday but I think to myself, if I ever come back here, not too likely, the weather couldn’t be so good, better make the most of it.
Easy enough to the tarns but after that the speargrass makes its presence felt.
Ouch!!
Those plants can almost draw blood by looking at them. They are actually hard to spot in that tussock so I decide to avoid them and clamber up another dry watercourse. In the wet it would be perilous but today it is great, some scrambling required but I don’t have a big pack on for once and I quickly make the little saddle, then up the rocky south ridge.
I’m on top of the world.
A 410 m climb from the hut and they don’t call it The Needle for nothing. It really sticks out and there’s a huge 360° view. Can’t get away from Mt Patriarch, there’s Point 1442 I came down to get to Hurricane Hut, over there Nelson Lakes National Park and around to Mt Lyell and the Old Ghost Road, and the South Mokihinui.
Could probably see some Tasman Sea if I had been up early enough but there’s some haze in that direction.
I’m standing on the top of the world.
Maybe not a real rest day but man, it was a great place to be.
A guide to the night’s accommodation: Larrikin Creek Hut
