By Kevin de Lange, 03 December 2022
Plans for this trip took shape back in August at a post-tramp Maccas stop after a somewhat spontaneous overnighter to Blue Range Hut. Captivated by its bright blue exterior, we set out to visit a nearby (and bright orange) hut, Cow Creek. A few delays and over three months later, the stars aligned. Six months after that, I'm writing this trip report.
Anyway, the plan: get to Cow Creek and take a picture in front of the hut with everyone wearing orange. After a realization that many people don't possess much orange clothing, we settled for a backup plan of taking a picture with everyone wearing bright colors. Bonus points for matching colored foods.
We met at the gearshed as usual, where Kat bestowed upon me a Kathmandu fleece she got off of TradeMe to replace my heavy civilian fleece. Chris showed up with his newly green/red dyed hair, coincidentally on-theme. We rolled out with two cars, getting to the road end at around noon. The first section of the trail is the track to Blue Range, and is quite an uphill slog. Around halfway up we had a snack break, where there was just enough signal for Jackson to show everyone the meme of the Spanish Knuckles guy dancing (iykyk).
Brief stop at Blue Range for some lunch and water, then onwards to Cow Creek; the rest of the way being either fairly flat or pretty steep downhill. We ended up getting to the hut at around 6:30 to find an older fellow staying there for the night. Most of us brought tents, so we looked for some flat ground to set up camp. We stumbled upon a convenient, helipad-shaped clearing by the river and pitched up. As is tradition, I leeched off of Chris and convinced him to let me share the tent he carried all the way over.
After we got set up, we dressed up and took the pictures we came for and cooked up our dinners. Special shoutouts to Kat and Justin for fully coordinating their food choices with their colors, and to Alex for managing to make some hot chocolate by melting some Jaffas.
The next morning was a bit hectic, with some of us taking longer to pack up than others. One group left early, but not before some pictures on the bridge. I ended up walking back solo before the second group left to try catch up, so I can't speak to much of what happened for much of the walk back. After reviewing the photographic evidence, apparently Chris climbed a tree, and Alex's shoe ripped apart. Anyway, the way back is much like the way in, a lot of uphill, some flat, then a lot of downhill.
I can't speak much for the quality of the actual hut, but it's a nice overnighter and you can always divert to Blue Range if needed.