January 9th, 2016

If it rained heavily that night, no one was conscious enough to note it. The next morning brought us the best weather of our stay in Knobs Flat, and after a breakfast of bacon and eggs, we set forth
to capitalize on it. The first stop was a hike that PC had recommended for a clear day, the Key Summit hike. We parked at the Divide, which served as the trailhead, and headed up the trail. We reached the
treeline and alpine terrain after a little under three hours. Most of the clouds had blown off the mountains and the scenerey was indeed magnificent. On the way down, however, I apparently neglected to
lace my boots tight enough, and suffered some blisters. In the parking lot, one of the region's large bumblebees came up to me, and landed directly on my lips, attemping to drink from my mouth! I shooed it 
away, and had to close the car door to keep it from following me.

Back at the car, we hopped over to the trail to Lake Marian, the early bit of which featured a falls. After the viewing platform, Nick proceeded to hike up to the lake, which went through quite a boulderfall.
Jen and I headed back to the cabins for lunch, and eventually returned to pick him up, actually arriving within a minute of his arrival. On the trip back, we stopped by a few minor places, such as Cascade Creek
and the Knobs for which our lodge was named. It was mid-evening by the time we returned, and we grilled some steaks and potatoes to celebrate. The grill provided by the campsite was... old, and didn't have
much in the way of temperature control, so the steaks ended up kind of blackened and medium-rare at the same time. They still tasted fine.

We turned in relatively early, as we had to depart by 6 am to make the cruise trip from Te Anau. After talking to PC, we double-checked and discovered that the trip actually departed from Manapouri, which
was another 20 km south. This would end up making the morning connection close...