Up early on Christmas Day for an imperceptible uphill to Rakaia and then an impressive downhill into the gorge.
Met a French Canadian couple going the same way and similar style of traveling
A relaxing morning tea with coffee and a melting moment that we saved from the day before and then a hard climb up out of the gorge. A quarter of the way up someone gave us a gingerbeer for our achievement, but the rest of the climb was tougher and longer.
We decided to get a cabin at mount somer instead of camping cause it looked like heavy rain. In the end it was just a few raindrops but that at the cabin it did rain more.