Day 31 - A Frame Hut to Rakaia River & Methven

Alarm clock went off at 5.30h since we wanted to be on the street early to catch every possible car on the road today. The section ends officially at the Rakaia River which is usually cannot be crossed. Since we had to go out to get food we were also not tempted to try…
We hiked the 10km in under two hours including the ascent of a little saddle. Good speed! The grass was still wet since the entire area was covered in clouds during the night. So we all had completely wet feet after 10 minutes. Good start ?

The clouds gave fantastic views on our stretch while they were slowly lifting and disappearing.

We arrived at the street at shortly after 8h and the first two cars arrived within the first two minutes. But unfortunately they were all full. But with this start we were not worried at all and comfortably waited for the ride drying out shoes and eating some of our snacks.

During the next hour there was no car at all. So we decided to continue on be street to the next little farm hoping for one of the farmers going to town. We really didn’t feel like walking 40km to Methven. Well, also here nothing happened for the next 4h! We sat at the side of the road and the only cars that passed us went into the wrong direction covering us in huge dust clouds from the gravel road. After almost five hours of waiting we were lucky caught a ride to the main road and from there it was not to hard to get to town. First stop: bar! Well deserved beer ?

We used the rest of the day to do the usual town stuff: washing, showering, buying food and eating.

766km done, 25%!