14km Day : 915km Total
12 February 2015

This morning I slept in late and packed up my tent for the 4km walk to the highway with the intent to hitchhike to Hanmer Springs from there.  After a kilometer there was a swing bridge crossing the Boyle River and on the other side were Ryan and Robbie.  We gave each other a Hey There wave from opposite sides of the river.

When I reached the shelter at the highway i began repacking my bag a bit to prepare for hitching.  While i was there Andrew was dropped off after spending yesterday in Hanmer.  He suggested that since i was planning to spend tomorrow in Hanmer, that i walk the additional 10km of trail to Windy Point today and hitch from there.  This would give me a start on the next trail section when I return.  A great idea I hadn’t considered, so after a short talk with him I put my pack back on for another 10km of tramping.  Andrew was stopping in at the Outdoor Education center to pick up a package he had forwarded before continuing.

Just another kilometer away the trail required a wading of the Boyle river.  With the rains from two days ago the river was a little high and fast and cold.  There were a few meters of crossing where the water was knee high with a quick flow.  If it had been any faster or deeper I may have reconsidered this crossing.

On the other side I met Ryan and Robbie who were taking a break along the river.  They are not stopping to resupply here as they packed enough food in St Arnaud to get them to Arthur’s Pass.   After a brief catch up discussion I moved on.

A few more kilometers on there was a crossing of the Doubtful River that was definitely swollen.  I had to walk an additional 100m upstream from the marked crossing point, which was fast and deep enough that I was concerned about crossing,  to find a wider crossing point where the fast flowing water was not as deep.

After a while I came to a fence with markers indicating a detour right, taking me away from Windy Point.  At first I wasn’t concerned, but then the marked trail took me even farther away from the river and into the hills.  At this point I got out my GPS to see where it was taking me.  I was on Tui Track, which eventually joins back up with the TA but doesn’t go by Windy Point.  This is one of those places where the TA map and the TA notes do not agree.  The map indicates to walk directly through this 2m high fence, but the notes say to take the Tui trail around.

I ended up taking Tui trail up to the Hope-Kiwi track and backtracking this trail to Windy Point at the cost of 3km more trail than planned. 

At the Windy Point intersection I found Andrew sitting and taking a break.  I asked him where I took a wrong turn.  He said I didn’t, but when he saw the trail didn’t match the map he ignored the markers and climbed over the fence to stay on the mapped route.  I think Andrew must be a genius, or I’m just really dumb.

From there it was just a short walk out to the highway where after only a short time i got a ride out to the highway intersection for the road that leads to Hanmer.  Here I found Sharon thumbing for a ride back out to Boyle Village after staying the night at Hanmer.  Just up the road I stopped at a cafe for a toasted ham and cheese. 

I was still 8km from Hanmer but had bad luck at getting a ride.  I don’t hitchhike much so I imagine I’m just bad at it.  After standing with my thumb out for a while with no luck, I started walking and stopping to stick out my thumb at each car.  No luck at this for about an hour I finally just gave up hitching and walked the rest of the way in, keeping my thumb to myself.  So if you add this 8km and the extra 3km on the Tui track the day’s true walking distance was 25km.  Arrived in Hanmer Springs at 6pm.