Start – Arthurs Pass
Finish – Bealey Hut
Daily Distance – 14 km + 5 km off-trail
TA Distance – 2217 km
Today, I walked like a true English gentleman. I started with a coffee, stopped by a pub for lunch and inbetween
ambled contentedly for not too great a distance, before flopping down with a cup of tea and a
ginger nut. A fine day indeed.
Today’s short distance wasn’t the result, or rather, not the sole result, of apathy on my part. Rather, it is to
do with an annoying bit of TA routing that is coming up. After reaching lake Coleridge in a few days the
TA route takes a break when it hits the impassable barrier of the Rakaia river. The route recommences on
the other side of the river, the slight wrinkle being that it can’t be safely crossed on foot. To travel around
by road is in the region of 70km, thanks TA! The options are:
a) walk 2 long days on roads
b) attempt to Hitchhike to the nearby town of Methven and catch the school bus for $20 (£10). The catch
being it only runs Mon-Fri
c) pay $120-200 (£60-100) on a private taxi. This requires at least 2-3 people to run though.
As I am planning to resupply in Methven anyway and resent paying taxi fares when I’m supposed to be on
a thru-hike, I am aiming for option b.
So getting back to my original point about today’s short distance. Racing through this section would
realistically put me in Methven on Fri, but too late for the 6am bus. This would leave me kicking my
heels in town for 2 days with nothing much to do. A more pleasant alternative seems to be taking my time
for the next few days to arrive in Methven on Sat for a Sun resupply and a Mon return to the trail. All a
bit of a faff really, but unfortunately unavoidable.
In other news, I am feeling pretty much back to 100% after the past week of really struggling to eat
anything. A few pounds thinner than before, but I’ll enjoy trying to remedy that in the next town.
Interestingly, I have now met 4 other TA hikers who have also been feeling ill, so perhaps it’s the
unsanitary conditions of hiker-life catching up with us. One positive impact of having skipped meals is
that I now have enough food to eat like a king though. So all in all, mustn’t grumble.
