7km Day : 922km Total
15 February 2015
-42.612545, 172.307468

I started this morning in Hanmer Springs after rest and resupply.  I had the intention of hitchhiking back to Windy Point to continue the hike where I left it.  My thought was that I would start hiking again by noon.  But leaving Hanmer the traffic was light.  So I started the 8km walk back to the highway intersection making a conscious effort to turn and put out my thumb for every car.  But no one stopped and I ended up walking all of Hanmer Springs Road again.  I did get a good view of the Waiau Ferry Bridge and crossed it for the second time.

Waiau Ferry Bridge

Just on the other side of the bridge is a small cafe where I stopped for another grilled ham and cheese.  The main road to Windy Point was just on the other side of the cafe.  Walking the main road was not an option since Windy Point was 35km away. 

I stood at the intersection for a frustrating hour with my thumb out and got no ride.  I finally gave up and called the shuttle bus company who said they had a shuttle going through the area that could pick me up at 3:40 and take me to Windy Point.  I’ve never liked hitchhiking, and today’s experience amplified that sentiment.

It was after 5pm before I got back to hiking at the point I left the trail.  So I only got a couple of hours of tramping in before I stopped and put up my tent for the night about one kilometer East of Hope Shelter.  Once I got my tent set up and everything inside I went through the typical 10 minute ritual of ensuring that every sand fly inside the tent was dead.  Tonight I killed around 20 of them.  There are swarms of them around the tent and a lot of them got in even though I made an effort to keep the netting closed as much as possible.