Te Araroa, Day 88

I start walking just past 6 am. The moon is still shining, while the sun slowly rises.

The first climb up is through the forest, that can be seen in the back of the next picture.

While on that climb, I get a last view onto Blue Lake:

After climbing through the forest, I reach a plain. The sun is casting a deep red hue on some peaks, and I catch my first glimpse of Lake Constance.

From the plain, there is a steep climb up a rockslide ( it does not look that steep in the picture though). If you look close enough, you see me in the first picture, in the green part before the rockslide.  
The peak in the second picture with the rockslide appears now very golden as it's touched by the sun. 

Looking down from the rockslide, there is the plain, left from it I came up, on the right is Lake Constance and there is a figure, at the beginning of the rockslide: X is on his way up.

At the end of the rockslide is a travers. Walking along the steep slope parallel to the lake:

Next there is a very steep and long climb down to the end of the lake. It is very slippery and we take quite some time to get down.

We reach the lake and the end of the lake and follow some markers in the valley to the bottom of the climb up to Waiau pass.

The climb up to Waiau pass is steep, long and slippery, consisting of a lot of loose rocks. 
The views are fantastic though.

After a break, we start descending the other side. It's real climbing. There are three "chimneys" to descend, with walls at 90-degree angles. We have to use both hands and feet, pressing against the walls of the chimneys while slowly making our way down.

One of the chimneys we climbed down:

Climbing down a chimney with hands and feet:

Also after the chimneys the descent is steep and slippery.

We have another break at a beautiful and extremely clear stream.

And we continue the descend...

Getting down to the valley there are lots of river crossings to do. No day with wet shoes and socks....

Next on the menu are many, many rockslides that we have to traverse. It takes a while and a lot of concentration.

And finally the valley becomes more smooth and it is not far anymore to Waiau hut, where we set up our tents. 
The moment we stop walking, we are invaded by millions of sandflies. I have a mosquito and sandfly repellent but they seem to love it. Immediately I have a dozen of them in the bag, where some of the repellent had leaked in. 
After 12 hours of walking - with some breaks, it feels good to lay down in the tent.