25km Day : 901km Total
11 February 2015
-42.519042, 172.415702’9

Anne Hut is a big hut and with only 4 of us sharing it last night, so I ended up with a big sleeping flat to myself when I went to sleep.  So I was surprised this morning when I woke up with someone sleeping on the other end of it.  Nick from Brisbane came in at 11pm last night.  He is doing the TA Trail in the South Island by paragliding from mountains wherever possible.  He climbed and glided off of 5 hilltops yesterday.  Pretty cool!

I left the hut this morning considering several options for the next couple of days.  I left at 7:15 to give me the full range of possibilities without needing to rush for any of them.  The main options were to camp near Boyle Village and hitch in the morning to Hanmer or to push to Boyle Village and hitch to Hanmer this evening.

Colin & Graeme on a Tea Break

It was nice walking through river valleys all day.  Throughout the morning I walked off and on with the Kiwis and Sharon (from Hawaii).  I reached Boyle Flat Hut for lunch where I was joined by Sharon.  Colin & Graeme continued on without stopping for lunch, with a deadline of meeting Colin’s wife at Boyle Village.

After the hut the trail started leaving the grassy flats and traveled through more of the woodlands above the river.  Occasionally coming back to the grasslands.

Fancy Stile

Today I saw a lot of geese.  When I first saw some in flight my thought was Canadian Geese.  But even though Canadian Geese have a long migration, I doubt they fly all the way to New Zealand. I just did a little research online and discovered that Canadian Geese were introduced in New Zealand in 1905 as a game bird.

Canadian Geese

I’ve camped along the Boyle River.  It will be a short walk in the morning to the village where I can either hitch a ride to Hanmer or catch the 10:20am shuttle bus.

Freedom Camp

There must be close to a hundred sand flies on my mosquito netting.

Sand Flies