Start – Manuka Hut
Finish – Geraldine
Daily Distance – 32 km
TA Distance – 2349 km
Today’s chapter could, with no false flattery, be entitled “The many labours of Wayne”.
Wayne, as the owner of Alps 2 Ocean, really helped us out today with getting around the Rangitata river.
The original plan was to see if the river could be crossed on foot. However, having met people walking
Northbound, it sounded passable, but unpleasant, with water levels reaching chest height in places. With
no phone reception, the fallback plan was to hitchhike to a nearby town and try to arrange transport
around the river from there. With traffic scarce it was looking like being a long day tomorrow to obtain a
ride. Fortunately Wayne was picking up some other hikers at 17:00 and taking them to Geraldine 50km
away. He will then ferry them back to the trail tomorrow morning. Despite having no prior arrangement,
he agreed to come back and run myself and 5 others into Geraldine tonight. That is how I came to be
packed into a people carrier at 19:30 on the way to town, fish and chips and a camping spot at the holiday
park. After 32km today, the fact that Wayne took time out to swing by the fish and chip shop at 20:45,
earns him near hero status in my eyes. He also phoned ahead to advise the holiday park we were coming,
so the reception stayed open to check us in. All in all, so much easier than it could have been and another
example of excellent kiwi customer service.
In other news, after several days of scrutinising every hill, we finally found Edoras! With that mission
accomplished, I promise to take it easy on the Lord of the Rings nerdishness for a while. At least until
Queenstown anyway, when there may be a small (ok, major) relapse…
