A Dangerous Business

Date: 31st December 2025

Start: Waterfall Valley Hut (km 10.5)

End: Windermere Hut (km 17.8)

Distance Travelled: 18.7 km

Total Distance Completed: 33.96 km

Song Currently Stuck in Head: End Credits by Chase & Status

Views from Barn Bluff: endless

This marks the third year I’ve finished a calendar on a trail somewhere. First time was in 2022, doing the Tongariro Northern Circuit with Eli, staying at Mangatepopo Hut. Second time was on the TA in 2023, having just finished a very hard and wet climb to Waihohonu Hut in the Tararuas. Couldn’t make it 4 years straight (can’t even remember what I did for New Year’s at the end of 2024) but 3 in 4 is still a good ratio I reckon.

Right, let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first: I slept terribly. The huts on the Overland have sleeping platforms but no mattresses. Not a biggie, but in the newer huts they’re set up longitudinally, so depending on your positioning you’re either face to face, foot to foot, or worst of fall face to foot. So essentially all night my feet were being kicked by Hamilton (because he’s freakishly tall) and by face was being kicked by Bek (because I had shifted by bed down to compensate for Hammy’s freakishly long frame). Plus, anytime I tried to move my mattress made an absolute racket and of course people were snoring. Really should’ve tried using earplugs.

Anyway, after all that I woke up around 6:30 and to my surprise barely anyone was awake yet. I was fully expecting at least one group fully packed and ready to go. I went about making a coffee whilst the rest of the gang arose from their similarly poor sleep. After the experience of getting up and down Cradle Mountain, Bek and Dan opted against going up Barn Bluff and taking a shorter day to the next hut. Hamilton, being the intensely energetic teenager he is, was raring to go for another climb. As was I, mind you.

Leaving our main packs at the hut, we climbed back to the plateau and in no time we were on the side track leading to the bluff.

Most of the way there was on the plateau we walked on yesterday, easy walking on wooden duckboard used to protect the fragile alpine environment up here. That said, it didn’t take long for the track to turn almost into a repeat of the Cradle Mountain climb we did yesterday. The duckboard gave way to rocky steps which in turn gave way into a boulder field to scramble through.

Unlike Cradle however, there were no neatly placed marker poles to help guide us up the peak. Instead we had to rely on sporadically placed rock cairns and the occasional orange trail marker. The markers only pointed up so we wouldn’t be able to rely on them coming back down, but that would be an issue for future Jono and Hammy. Another issue was the constantly fluctuating winds coming through, forcing us to stop regularly to either put on or take off our rainjackets. Once we got high enough we just left them on.

Much to our chagrin, we had to go over two false summits at the top of the bluff before reaching the official summit with the obligatory summit cairn. Once there, it was like we had a view of the entire national park.

Simply phenomenal. Gotta be one of my favourite summit views of all time. The only thing working against us was the wind, which was bitterly cold and greatly limited our time at the top. After about 10 minutes or so, we started our way back down, half our effort going into the physical effort of scrambling, the rest focused on searching for rock cairns.

Once down and back onto an actual path, we made quick work of the trail back to the now deserted Waterfall Valley Hut, had a quick lunch stop and then left for the final time to walk the short distance to the next hut. But not before quickly stopping by the historical hut located nearby.

The walk to Windermere Hut was pretty uneventful. Hammy and I just chatted most of the way there, with most of the trail built out of wooden duckboard.

In between undulating forested hills were exposed sections dotted with peaks on all sides. The trail was super easy to follow, but I was constantly stopping just so I could admire the view.

Lake Windermere soon came into view, with the hut a short distance away. Allegedly, on a small island about 100m off the edge, is a logbook which people can swim out to and put their names in. I was slightly tempted to swim out, but I knew that water was gonna be cold and didn’t exactly fancy an ice bath up in the Tasmanian highlands.

As it turns out, the logbook isn’t there anymore; Bek checked for us.

Windermere Hut was rebuilt around the same time as Waterfall Valley and has similar facilities. The bunkrooms are smaller, so it was just us four, plus a couple from Canberra named Tali and Lauren who we met on day 1. The rest of the day was spent playing many a round of 500 (I’m still completely hopeless at it), but after dinner, someone organised a trivia game for us to play. From the sounds of it, he prepared a number of rounds before coming out on trail (big thanks to our AI overlords for writing the questions) so we might be in for more later down the track. Oh, we won by the way.

By sunset, the games had been wrapped up and it was time for bed. I was definitely more tired than on night 1 so I had some confidence I would sleep better this time around. Considering tomorrow’s schedule, I really need it.