Overnight hike to Cedar Flat Hut

On to another venture, this time heading into Cedar Flat Hut. So about four hours, seven kilometers till we get there. There's some really nice hot pools about 15 minutes away from the hut, so we might spend the afternoon soaking away our nose. Not the best weather day, a few showers, a bit overcast. Hopefully it clears up a bit, but there's not supposed to be any torrential rain, so should be a good day. The track starts heading through, easement through farmland, so we're going to follow this until we reach the bush and see what the track's like. Should be a bit, well probably will be a bit muddy and slippery, but adds to the fun of the adventure. Just leaving the private farmland now and hit the track to Cedar Flat. Right into the thick of the west coast bush now. It's nice to be somewhat sheltered from the rain showers, just some usual drips falling from the trees. Pretty good track, bit wet and muddy, but pretty easy going. So a great thing about this track is there's a flood route if the river's high and the main valley track, which naturally would be a bit quicker because that one climbs up there and I have heard it's a bit of a climb. Bit of a steep drop to negotiate on this section, but not too bad. Down to the river level, we have made it. Just look at that river, isn't it stunning? And up that way is where we're headed. The rocks have turned into boulders and pretty smart going about here. That wee side creek looked worse than it was, but that is the crux of the trip into Cedar Flats and if you can't pass that, you can't get into Cedar Flats. So just a little bit more up the river, you can see, and then we'll go into the bush. Just left the river and we're starting the climb into the bush to get around the gorge and then there's a bit of a sidle and then I think it drops back down into the river to get to Cedar Flat hut. Very steep and this is the reason why we had to climb so steeply up, giant slip. As you go up, you've actually got to come down. There's quite a few slips to negotiate on this track. Some of them have got big drop downs and then big climbs on the other side, but in between it's a really lovely well graded track. I see a hut. So we're a new short distance away from Cedar Flat hut. I've come out of the bush onto river flats now and then it's just a short wee distance onto the hut. Just like that, we park out to a sign. Hot pools, Cedar Flat and the road end. One swing bridge and then we'll be at the hut and here we are arriving at the hut. So this orange one is the old Cedar Flat hut. Right there we have the new one. Hot pools, 10 minutes that way. Let's see what all the fuss is about. So this is the track to the hot pools. There's actually a bit of a climb involved in it, which I'm pretty sure the guidebook didn't say anything about. So I hope they're worth it. These hot pools are certainly making us work for them. Now we're going down. Hopefully they're worthwhile. I think, I think we've made it. I can smell sulphur. Down at the river, X marks the spot. Maybe. We can smell them. Can't be too far away. There they are just across the river. So across the stream, which is cold, and here's the hot pool. I'm sure it's lovely, but it doesn't look appealing.