Te Araroa (day 49) - Boyle Flat Hut to Hope Halfway Hut [Hamner Springs] / mile 1309

"There is no freedom" Maori woman sitting on a bench in Hamner Springs

"Oh hello mr TA hiker" non-Maori woman at the information centre in Hamner Springs

"Deer meat needs to age for about a week in the fridge before the muscles relax and it gets tender. Our friends in Europe think that we are barbarians" man hunter at the Hope Halfway Hut

Town day. They are always exciting, especially after a long time on the trail. But then again it's equally good to come back to the trail after all your business is done.

Today I started earlier than usual to reach the road and get a hitchhike to Hamner Springs as soon as possible, I didn't want to stay in town overnight. It was over 50 kilometres away from the trail and accomodation there was rather scarce and expensive.

I got to the Boyle Campsite by the road just before 9am, Lemmy the German guy who walked here yesterday was still around, so we decided to get a ride together. It took around 15 minutes, Mike a local from Christchurch was just finishing his walk for the day and said that he can give us a lift to town. Ride took around 20 minutes, Lemmy took charge over the conversation and thank god as Mike liked to talk about politics, also his dislike for Asian people was quite apparent. I was sitting in the back seat quietly, sending watsapp messages and checking the weather for the upcoming week.

Once in Hamner Springs we went with Lemmy to a bakery, had a coffee, a toastie and talked about the experiences on the trail. He was planning to spend a zero day in town, go to the hot springs and meet few friends. I had to keep on moving if I wanted to get out of town today. 

My next stop was '4Square' supermarket, where I resupplied for 8 days, it would be my biggest (hopefully) food carry on TA, reason being that next town Arthur's Pass Village only had a small shop with very limited assortment and high prices. After that I went to "Rustic Café and Tapas Bar" where I had a "big breakfast" it was so big in fact that I couldn't finish it! I packed the leftovers and ate it later on the trail. Last thing I had to do was to buy a creame for cuts and bruises. I kept on scratching the sandflies bites and the skin on my feet got irritated. This and constantly wet shoes from stream crossings led to a messy feet I needed to heal up quickly before more crossings ahead.

Just after 2pm I queued by the exit from Hamner Springs and raised my thumb up. Unfortunately no one was willing to stop for an hour and I must have flagged over a hundred cars. It was Sunday afternoon and everybody was rushing home after the weekend, not the best time for hitchhiking. Eventually a white Ford pulled over and a friendly eastern European voice asked where I would like to go. Guys name was Zakir, he was from Ukraine, he moved here 13 years ago and never heard about the trail I was hiking. So we talked about it, the war and plans for the future. He had some leftover pizza he shared with me. The ride was over quite quickly, Zakir was going to Christchurch so he dropped me at the intersection after 10 kilometres.

I queued up for my second 40 kilometre leg of the hitchhike and was luckier this time. Matt a young guy living in the area stopped and offered me a ride. He was taking his friends car back to home. We talked about 'the Kiwi dream' which was to buy a piece of land and build your own house. Matt and his girlfriend tried that but unfortunately the house got flooded and due to some loopholes in law they couldn't get another mortgage even though they got their money back from insurance, it was an "act of god" apparently. Matt was a builder and was quite disheartened with current state of affairs for young people in New Zealand. He dropped me off by the trail head, we shook hands and he left.

I hiked another 7 miles to a Hope Halfway Hut, where I stayed with two hunters a father and his 14 year old son and a fisherman from Switzerland. It was very interesting to listen to their stories about why and what they do. Swiss guy was fishing without killing, releasing the fish back after taking the picture of it. The hunters were on a five days trip where they managed to kill 8 deer with 8 bullets. They fried few slices of deer meet for us and it was delicious, it was second time in my life I ate venison. They explained to me the philosophy of hunting, they would hardly ever eat store bought meet, and the one they hunted would be processed by their local butcher into mince and sausages. They told me where to shoot the deer to kill it instantly and how to skin, bone and store the meet.

Soon after it got dark and we all settled down to sleep. It was definitely an exciting and interesting day on the trail!