Te Araroa Day 77, Anne Hut to Boyle Village

Starting km: 2066
Finishing km: 2095
km covered today: 29

I like having rest days, but don't like taking days off from walking. Partly because I like to keep the kilometres ticking over constantly and partly because it seems to take me a while to get back into walking after even one day off.

What to do when faced with such a dilemma? Why, wake up at 04:30, walk 30km before noon and then have an afternoon off, of course.

The first 40 mins or so of the morning were spent walking by headlamp during which I almost spiked (i.e. stabbed with my trekking pole) a spike (i.e. a hedgehog).

Though there were stars out when I started walking, by the time the sun was fully up it was completely cloudy.  So neither the weather nor the (visible parts of) the mountains were up to the previous day's standard.  This further reinforced my desire to push through to the end of the track ASAP. Which was a bit of a shame as I remembered the St. James Walkway as being a very nice walk, but I guess a cloudy day and comparison with Waiau Pass did it no favours.

A mix of airy beech forest, grassy flats and several bridges across the Boyle River and by noon I was at Boyle Village. Which was basically an outdoor education centre and a few holiday homes.

Nonetheless, it provided a wide spot in the road for cars to stop and within about fifteen minutes I'd hitched a lift with a fifty-something Kiwi guy who plays the banjo and was listening to bluegrass music.

About the same amount of time at the next road intersection and I had found my way into Hanmer Springs. After my recent discussion of place name pronunciation I feel compelled to point out that it's pronounced HANmer, not HAMner as the vast majority of Kiwis do.

Arriving at 13:30 gave me lots of time to eat, drink, shower, rest, read, write and organize. If not visit the eponymous Springs, which, at $24 for entry weren't really good value unless one was spending the whole day.

There were two other TA walkers staying at my hostel, so we got together to make a fab dinner of BBQd butterflied lamb leg (my new favourite thing to cook on the BBQ), cabbage with bacon and onion and rice. Top this off with a couple of nice beers and a great big glass of nice Scotch courtesy of another guest who was leaving the country soon and didn't want to throw away the litre or so left in the bottle and you have a lovely evening and a good place to finish this entry.