Te Araroa (day 53) - Bealey Hut to Harper River Campground / mile 1396
Nice and easy day walking along the Harper river. Trail after an initial climb was quite flat and enjoyable. The whole day felt very "European", typical New Zealand bush had been replaced with forest, trail had switchbacks up and down the mountain and river crossings were really manageable. It was almost as if I wasn't hiking Te Araroa. Around midday I reached a well maintained Hamilton Hut and after a lunch break there I decided to push onwards to Harper river Campground. Trail from here on was running mainly along 4wd track, with very easy river crossings. I arrived at the campsite at 5pm. Only one more person was camping here tonight, it was Kat from Czech Republic, everyone else decided to push further 18 miles to lake Coleridge, which was quite impressive. Kat was in New Zealand on a one year working holiday visa, she was planning to extend it by another three months. She was doing a mixture of both working and travelli...