We left the Catlins and headed to Invercargill. We had plans to visit the Hump Track, but after checking it out (it is very expensive to do – even if you take your own food and gear, as it is a private track), we decided to spent some time in the Takatimu Mountains. This is a compact set of mountains between Mossburn and Te Anau.
Access was easy even with a small hire car – via a short dirt road that goes to the Lower Princhester Hut. We arrived at the hut in the late afternoon and spent a pleasant hour or two outside in the beech forest photographing the fungi and slime moulds.
The hut is a basic but comfortable DOC 6 bunk hut. We shared the hut with two trampers from the Czech Republic doing the Te Araroa Trail – north to south (They had almost finished) and another tramper from the North Island doing the very last southern section of Te Araroa Trail (between the Bluff and Queenstown) but in the opposite direction to the other party.
Overnight it rained, but it eased during the morning. Wendy and I packed our gear and headed up the track up the Bog Burn and over a saddle in the range to the next valley. There we camped near the bushline. Our original intention had been to leave the saddle and climb through the forest onto the tops near Clares Peak and have high camp – but the weather looked a bit uncertain for this.
The next day, we returned back over the saddle to Lower Princhester Hut, and after lunch drove to Te Anau.
More photos of this section of our trip are online here.