My entire weekend was spent walking in the Hopkins and Huxley Valleys, with a couple of colleagues from university, just north of Lake Ohau. We arrived at Monument Hut around 1 am on Friday night, after a late departure from Dunedin. Saturday saw us following the Hopkins and Huxley Rivers to Brodrick hut, where we cranked the fire and bunked for the night.

We got up at 05:30 on sunday morning, giving us enough time to make it up to Brodrick Pass and then back to the car before dark. It took about 2.5 hours to reach the pass; we made it just in time to get some stunning views of Mount Hooker before the clouds from the east blocked the views in all directions. Brodrick Pass is on the Main Divide between the east and the west, about 1600 metres elevation. The rest of sunday was spent blitzing back to the car; we finally made it back at 20 to 6, and got back into Dunedin around 11 pm. A good weekend trip, involving about 40 km of walking over 17 hours.