Day 38 - Hamilton Hut to Campspot of choice

The hut this morning was full of kids slamming doors and people rambunctiously cooking food or packing away their things. Wietse and I gave each other looks throughout the morning, not needing words to express our frustration with the situation.

By 10pm Wietse and I hit the trail. It was a fun, flat day if walking. The blue Sky weather kept our spirits up, but the numerous river crossings brought them back down. Yesterday I had dry feet for the first time in 12 days, but today my feet were sponges yet again.

It was a steady walk along a 4 wheel drive track through the valley. We came around a bed at one point, and the mountains changed dramatically. I was expecting this section to be quite boring, but I was completely wrong. The entire south island has been stunning so far, and I can imagine it's going to stay that way.

By 3pm Wietse and I reached the only road leading out towards Methven, and decided to post up and wait for a hitch. We waited for quite some time as the road we were on was a gravel road with minimal traffic. We had only seen a handful of cars in a few hours, but to our luck a car did stop and give us a lift to a busier road from which another car picked us up, and by 7pm we had made it to Methven.  We couldn't belive our luck. All the confusion getting around the Rakaia River was now solved, as we can pay a small fee for a lift from Methven to the Trail head.

We celebrated with a steak, egg, and chip dinner complimented with a few beers. We were happy hikers.