Hawdon Hut

Wow. Thats the only word i can describe the scenery at Hawdon Hut. Its breathtaking. When we got at the start of the tramp we had our first river crossing. It was REALY cold! We carried on through the bush, it took ages scince it was all overgrown. we had come out of the bush and we had lunch. All of a sudden people started to complain about having no water! There was no rivers to fill up and we got thirstier and thirstier. After what seemed like eternity, we came across a river! Wow it felt amazing!
   We stopped and dunked our heads in and filled our water bottles. Then we had to carry on with the tramp as we were only about 3/5 of the way up. We came across another river, which i swam in. Before long the whole group came in with me! When it was time with a photo i went in the middle and sat in the water.I floated there shoes up and just smiled! :D We chanted names, names of people who wouldn't go in to get them to go in.About 4 didn't go under. Ill get them.[ meaning next time i might have to drag them in!] We set of, again and before long, someone was complaining "how much longer?". Hours had gone and my shoulders were aching, red raw. I had blisters on my feet and bites on my legs, but i kept going. A long, long, long ,long time later we had Arrived! We raced to the hut and took of our packs. It felt so weird having no pack on. We went down to the river and I found a watering hole so we swam in it. It was pretty cold! I got out and Hayato asked me to bury him with rocks so he could dry quick. After that we went back but while we crossed a river my Jandal slipped of! I swam all the way down following it slowly. With a great amount of luck it got stuck between a rock! I held it up to show i got it! That night William Pike talked to us about his very detailed tale of the trip that went so horribly wrong. We had dinner and went to bed. The Hut is pretty luxurious for a D.O.C hut. There was a girls room and a boys room. Someone in my room kept blowing off. Im looking at you Hayato!  In the morning we got into our food groups and had breakfast together my group had Up&Go. We had about 20 minutes in our rooms talking and packing. Someone kept blowing off and it was horrible but luckily it was me so i didn't smell it as much.We put our soaking wet shoes and socks on,    [they actually weren't that bad!] Me and Samuel's shoulders were so bruised that we had to help each other put our packs on and get up! I know it seems weird that my shoulders were bruised BUT! I had to carry the gas cooker and Samuel had to carry the gas cylinders. It was quite chilly in the morning.We set off with a good pace. We came to our first river of the day. It was Freezing! I refilled my water bottle and we set off again. During the day it got  hotter and Hotter and Hotter! Luckily my feeling cold water was now only cold but people who didn't fill up had warm water from the day before. We had got half way and realised that we were making much better progress then the day before. It got even hotter so Hugh and I started to walk down the rivers instead of across. finally we got to the start/finish [depends on what way you look at it. If you were coming back down from Hawdon Hut you would say its the end but if you started the tramp it would be...ETC] But we may of finished the tramp but not the whole thing, we had Cave Stream to do!

below: Photos.



Cave Stream!
We enter cave stream car park. Just in time! Samuel was just about to say "Are we there yet?" for the 100th time. We climbed down the hill to the entrance. We came to the entrance. It was pretty cool. 
Mr Priddy gave us a quick safety talk and then we were off. In a couple of metres the water was up to my belly button [And im pretty tall]. We kept telling the person behind us if there was a rock or a drop or a step. I think the cave walk was 45 minutes. We got to the end and we had to go up a metal ladder. While I was waiting, I went under a waterfall and got soaked! I climbed up the ladder and then had to crawl along a ledge while holding on to a metal chain. It was hard work since i had to do an army crawl because I'm tall and if i crawled normally i would of hit my head! We got out and had a little swim in a spring. Then it was time to set of, the long drive home! We stopped of in SpringField, the home of the Simpsons Donut and got an ice cream, YUM! We hoped back into our cars and set of again. It felt like eternity until we arrived at school, I came to my dad who was taking me home. He reminded me of the nice warm relaxing bath and the delicious food. He said, "guess what?" and i said "what?","tomorrow we will have to wake up early to do community service for the challenge!" My mind started going crazy! WHAT!