Legs and Borders

"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 minut...

Great day on the trail! Weather was excellent, cloudy at first, sunny from midday. Path although muddy and wet to start with transitioned into well maintained trail just after the river crossing at mile 531. My feet were back in action after a bit of cutting off dead blister skin with nail clipper yesterday. The ranger responsible for catching 'vermin' in the area had a gruesome habit of leaving carcasses right on the trail, perhaps to teach hikers a lesson about death. There was a rotting goat skeleton, a hanging possum in it's macabre head trap hanging off the tree, and a big fat rat in an 'egg' trap, all within 5 metres of each other. Few miles later I met a hunter walking down the trail, with a scary silver hunting rifle looking like something out of a shooter game. He was hunting deer, I told him I saw few feral goats today, to which he responded that local hunters had a competition running recently of who would kill the most of them. Cl...