Day 65: St. Arnaud to Red Hills hut

Highlight:

Our first taste of the Richmond Range ridge walking and whats to come.
Despite SOBO's recommending a shorter track, we followed the official Te Araroa route along Maitland ridge track. There was a couple of up's and downs but it was an interesting track and even with full packs (7days of food), it took less time than the DOC signs.

Challenge:

Being told by another hut occupant to move beds.

These backcountry huts work as a first in first serve basis. We preferr the bottom bunks as it's easy to access stuff, ofters a seat during the day, and there's no need to climb up and down a ladder.

As we had a short walking day, we had arrived mid afternoon at Red Hills hut.  We had an afternoon nap on the two still available bottom bunks.
A few hours later a group of SOBO's arrived, wet, tired, and one quite complainy. He then told us that as a 50 year old he had privilege for the bottom beds.

I followed Trent's lead on this (who was also not impressed), but decided to keep the peace due to the small quarters.
Reluctantly we moved our beds and stuff up. He was thankful, and quite obviously it had been a challenging day for him.

Summary: