We woke up at a campsite near the lodge and hung around for the day before pushing on. It was a gorgeous hike and we ended the day by running into a good friend and chasing off the Weka birds. The next day was the superbowl so our friend ran forward to catch it at a lodge. We hung around making a slow, long day. As we ate lunch and checked out our maps, we noticed a small trail that would take us up and over a summit instead of staying on the trail. We decided to be adventurous and take the "shortcut" that would cut off a whopping 1.5km. As we started the "trail" it became more and more obscure until it dissappeared completely. Using our GPS we stuck to where the trail would have been but it had not been traveled for at least ten years. We were scrapping through sharp gorse and a wall of trees and sticks, sometimes resorting to crawling on our hands and knees. Once the gorse ended we were met with a blockade of thick vines that covered an unstable ground of rocks and leaves. I busted through a trekking pole, snapping it in half. Close to the end, I hung from a tree to take a step down when the step blew out from underneath me and I began to fall. As my body kept tumbling, all I could think was "stop, stop, STOP." Suddenly, fifteen feet down the slope, mt feet dug in and I caught traction. I quickly did a check in of my limbs. Nothing broken. Lots of scrapes, lots of blood, but I was okay. I got up and we kept moving. Three hours and 2.5km later, we made it back to the nice, well graded trail. Slightly kicking ourselves thinking we could have made it at least 15km in the time we took to take the "shortcut". Battered and bloody, we took a swim in the ocean before moving on. We got to a side trail and hiked up to catch the sunset before getting to a campsite where we ran back into our friend. We made dinner and chatted about the day before deciding to night hike a bit more to see the stars and the glow worms that lined the trail. As we hiked into the night, my friend broke his shoe to put a cherry on top of our incredibly tough day. The next morning, we got into town and I started to feel sick. A cold had been drifting through the group and after pushing too hard, it got to me. I took the rest of the day off and slept, hoping to feel better in the morning. I did not and little did I know, things were only going to get worse. We hiked out of town and I felt like I was breathing fire. My lungs and my throat burned with every, extremely labored, breathe. I got to a hut and gave up for the day. The next morning I still couldn't breathe so I stayed at the hut till some other friends came along. I left with them and took things extremely slow. I didn't make it to camp until after nine that night. I wasn't getting any better and hiking wasn't helping. I decided the next day I would take a side trail and get off for some rest. We took sometime and saw a movie before deciding to do another side trail. We wanted to summit Mt. Richmond but were not super clear on how to do it. Luckily, our first hitch used to live right across the river from the mountain and told us everything we needed to know. We got there and crossed the river before climbing up to a hut just below the summit. It was fogged out so we waited till the next morning when it cleared up. We hiked up the scree slope and 20 minutes from the summit a massive cloud came in and covered any view we would hope to get. We got to the top as our gear started to dew up in the clouds and the wind whipped us around. We headed back down and ran down the mountain trying to beat the wall of rain that we saw coming in. Luckily, we beat it and got a hitch back down to the trail where we met up with the rest of the group and decided to wait out the rain in a hostel. We head out tomorrow to a hut where we will stay until the weather passes. Having a wonderful hiker reunion! 1940km