Day 112: Hamilton Hut to Methven (2198-2217)

Tuesday, March 21

I woke up early and started eating my nutritional breakfast of poptarts and peanut butter. I still can't believe Pak 'n Save had poptarts! The three of us were up around 7. We packed, I said goodbye to Marjolein and we were the first to leave the hut.

We wanted to start early today because we could potentially hitch to Methven. If we couldn't get a ride, we'd have to camp at the Power Trust Campsite and road walk to Rakaia Gorge Campground all day tomorrow.

Our plan was to walk to the road just past the campsite and wait a few hours for a ride. If we didn't get one, we'd camp and walk tomorrow until we got a ride. It was a 30 kilometer road walk from the Trust Power Campsite to Lake Colderidge. We'd need to walk a bit further to the Rakaia Gorge Campsite to legally camp, and then continue to road walk the next day or hitch to Methven to get around the first river hazard.

Karolina caught up to us when we stopped for a snack at the Pinnacles, a really cool rock formation up in the hillside. She would have caught us whether we stopped or not. She was flying.

There were lots and lots of river crossings, but they were all straightforward and the trail was flat and in a valley. It's so fun to look up at the mountains around you when you're in a valley. It makes me feel so small compared to everything around me.

As we walked along and through the river, we saw a bunch of cars and people up on a hill. We all took guesses as to who they were or what they were doing but we couldn't figure it out.

We made it to a gate and there was a nice four wheel drive track going around it. It seemed like we were done with river crossings for a bit so we put on another chapter of Malala (it's hard to hear Malala over running river water).

Before we knew it, around 2 pm, we had made it to Harper "Village" and Harper Road. We passed the turnoff for the campsite and walked just past all the houses (five or so) before we took off our packs and sat on the side of the road to wait for a car.

If we got tired of waiting we'd walk back to the campsite. It didn't make sense to walk further. If we didn't get a ride we'd just have more backtracking to do because we couldn't walk 30 kilometers by dark.

We put Malala on again and finished the book. Two cars went by us going the wrong way. Lauren went off to some nearby woods to explore and it summoned a ride! A really nice man named Kevin knew exactly what we were doing and gave us a ride. He was semi-retired, working for Trust Power, and was headed home to Methven. We got the feeling he saw hikers looking for rides a lot.

It was really nice to talk with him and he pointed out everything in town to us. He pointed out where the school bus to the trailhead would take us, Lake Colderidge, and Rakaia Gorge Campground. Lots of hikers go into Methven because it is really expensive to stay at Lake Colderidge (and you need a reservation), Methven has stores to resupply, and Methven lets hikers pay to take a school bus to the trailhead. After dropping off hikers, it starts its route back to town on the road the trailhead is on. Whoever thought of that was pretty smart! It's really nice and convenient.

Kevin dropped us off at the holiday park in Methven and told us that the Thai restaurant was his favorite in town. We thanked him and went to book a cabin or campsite. There was really cute dog around the Holiday Park.

The cabins were a little more than a campsite at $20 per person, so we decided to get a cabin. Once we unpacked a bit we went in search of dinner. The Thai restaurant was closed so we went to the Blue Bar. A nice woman working told us about hot pools at the hotel in town. Since we cut out a day of road walking, we could take a zero day tomorrow.

We stopped at the Four Square on our way home to get ice cream and breakfast food. Then we went to the cabin to watch West Wing and go to bed. We could sleep in as late as we wanted tomorrow!