Te Araroa (day 54) - Harper River Campground to Methven / mile 1413

A Nero day, I've walked for half of it until the Rakaia river hazard bypass and hitchhiked from there to Methven.

It was mostly gravel road walking, so the miles were flying fast, I've left the Harper River Campground early and arrived at the Lake Coleridge before midday. I've been told it was easy to catch a hitchhike here.. but the road was empty. I could have prearranged a shuttle for 50$ but I didn't think it was necessary, so now I was just walking along the road hoping a car will appear. Bypass was about 50 miles long so I had to get lucky or I would lose a lot of time trying to walk it.

After half an hour a car appeared and the driver was kind enough to stop and give me a lift to an intersection from which many cars were heading towards Methven. Another 20 minutes of sticking thumb up brought me a ride to town. This time it was mother and daughter from Auckland going to pick up their husband and son (or father and brother) from the cycling trail, they were going through Methven. After an hour and a half I reached my destination.

Straight away I noticed another TA hiker. It's quite easy to recognise us at this point, we look tatty, malnourished but generally happy. It was Hans from Germany, he was going to Christchurch to buy a new tent. He pointed me towards two other TA hikers which knew how to book a shuttle back to trail tomorrow. I got details from them and texted the driver, Alec. Shuttle started at 7:30am from the campground, 50$ per person. I booked it straight away as I heard that the road back was really empty, it would be a waste of time trying to hitch it.

The couple pointed me towards the campsite as well. I opted for a tent site (18$) rather than a cabin ($35) which more than likely I would have to share with others and wouldn't get much sleep that way. I've put the phone on charge, set the tent and went shopping to the 4Square. I've spent 120$ there, the most I ever did on a resupply and it wasn't even a large one. I've got few extras, a curry with rice, some fruits and an ice cream and that's what must have bump the price up.

I went back to the campsite, had a shower and washed my clothes in the sink. There was no point cleaning them thoroughly, they would stink tomorrow afternoon anyway. I ate the curry, repackaged and sorted the food: 3 chocolates, 8 peanut slabs (all delicious Whittaker's chocolate), can of Spam (transferred into a plastic bag, lasted 3 days), 5 pasta sides, 3 cans of chicken, 2 packets of tuna, 2 salami sticks, a small camembert, packet of 10 tortillas + 1 leftover one, 2 packets of Oreos, homemade trail mix (sunflower seeds I found at the Bealey hut + monkey nuts + packet of dry berries), ziplock of dried peas, some cous cous I found in the campsites kitchen and a big packet of Cinderella dry mash potato flakes. Not the healthiest trail diet but it worked. I might start cold soaking oatmeal in the mornings as a decent breakfast craving is a thing at the moment.

At the campsite I met Kiwi guy Craig, he just came back on trail after attending a funeral in Hamilton. He was few days behind his new (met on the trail) American girlfriend. Of course, he was planning how to catch up with her, she was three days ahead of him at this point. 

We talked Rangitata river crossing, which was an ambitious thing. I've looked into cumecs (cubic metres per second) readings of the river flow and it was currently at 62. People crossed Rangitata at 75 cumecs and it was easy. The problem was that in two days it was suppose to rain, the water levels could change dramatically if it did and Rangitata being a braided river meant that you could start crossing it in the low water flow and get cut off in the middle by the raising water levels. Rangitata river was very wide, it took two hours to cross it from one side to the other.

Alternative was to get to the crossing asap, see what's the weather like and try to get the latest cumecs reading. If it was too high (or there was no reception to get a reading in the first place) just make it to the parking lot in time and get a hitch out. Stay in another small town called Geraldine over night and get back on trail following morning. There was also a shuttle option but it cost 105$ both ways and it was leaving not very conveniently at 6pm every evening.

There was no obvious solution to this problem so I decided not to dwell on it at the moment. I went back to 4Square bought a Shepherd's Pie, milk, packet of crisps and had a glass of Canterbury draught in the Blue Pub around the corner. I've ate another dinner in the campsites kitchen, talked relationships with Craig, patched my feet up as it was still scratched and went to bed at hikers midnight (9pm).

A couple in the tent next door was having a romantic moment laughing and farting into their air mattress. Once they opened and shut their car door twenty eight times trying to find various things and went to sleep, the snoring duet from my other neighbours begun. I loved public campsites.