Today was the big day of the Rangitata river crossing. The Rangitata is officially not part of the TA since it is to dangerous to cross in normal conditions. We were lucky though since it hadn’t rained in at least a week so the river was low.


The crossings went fine, actually the current in the Ahuriri river was stronger than here. Only that we had to cross the Rangitata about 30 times. Nothing deeper than almost waist. The river bed is about 10km wide so the crossing takes time. In between there is just rocks again.

 

After the crossing we did a long lunch break.

It was so funny since we took a spot next to a car park and in be shade of a few trees. We all said how beautiful it was and started eating until one realised that we were sitting right in and next to many piles of cow shi… We just started laughing and figured that we are on the best way to become real hobos now ?

We passed the city of Edoras (Lord of the rings – Rohan) and went further upstream in Potts River before entering a nice and hilly track. The trail hasn’t been that good since the beginning of the TA!


We really pushed it and did the 22km in 4.5h. In total a very long day with about 34km and the river crossing! We camped next to the last water source close to the road. We didn’t know what to expect from the next km and the next hut was another 20km away. Not a very nice spot but without a real option. Once we stopped the sun was already gone behind one one of the mountains and it instantly got very cold especially because the wind picked up, too.


We filtered the water from the stream since there was farmland around and a warning for didymo pest as well. While doing this I broke my water filter – the bag that you fill up to squeeze the water through the filter just ripped after the 4. usage. On top I also broke my water plater – laid it down in the gras just on top of a thorn bush. Now I have three holes in it and three more days to the next city. Let’s see how he water issue will continue. At least my bone skins inflammation disappeared completely now!

Completely exhausted while writing this, already fell asleep three times. Good night!