Te Araroa, Day 77

This morning, I have to change rooms. I leave my backpack at the reception and walk to the supermarket to buy food and drinks for the next 2 days. When I come back, the room is ready.
I quickly check the whereabouts of my poncho and can't believe what I read. It arrived one hour ago in Nelson. Before, it was always indicated it would not arrive before Monday!

I dropp the groceries at the reception and head out to catch the buses to the postal service. An hour later, I am back with my poncho. I can't cancel the room, but I still decide to take the next bus to Richmond, from where I could get to the trail most easily.
I have 25 minutes to get things organized. I donate my groceries to the staff of the accommodation and quickly repack my backpack. I still hadn't packed the food from my resupply box.

Then I catch the bus and arrive around 2 pm in Richmond. There is a 20 km road to the trailhead. I start walking. After 2 km, a car stopps and the driver asks if I want a ride. He was going up to the trailhead to swim in the river there. I accept the ride.

From the trailhead, I reach Hackett Hut in less than 2 hours.

Hacket Hut:

Inside Hacket Hut:

I hoped to find X there or get some information from the hut book if he had passed that hut already. There is nothing. It is 4 pm, and I decide to go on to Stearvall Hut. It is supposed to be a 4,5 hour ascent with multiple river crossings. I am slightly scared of the crossings, and despite the late walk, I start the ascent.

The river crossings are not too bad, and with wet shoes and socks, I climb for hours inside a forest. The track is steep:

I don't take breaks except to catch my breath and take water from a stream, and I arrive at the hut around 8 pm. X is not there, so I believe he must be just before Hacket Hut or now at Hacket Hut. Besides me, there are 4 guys at the hut. 

I decide to try to sleep in that hut. There are simple bunks, like the ones I saw at Hacket Hut. I put my mattress on one of them, and at 9:30, everyone is in their sleeping bags.

Then we hear the mice. The guys hung up their food bags. I trust the Nylofume bag inside my backpack and do not hang anything up.

Outside of my pack, I leave one freeze-dried dinner though, deciding to risk it being discovered by the mice.  Tomorrow, I will know if the package was leaking odor and hadattracted the mice.