From Hanmer Springs to Kiwi Lodge Hut
Hiking time: 12:15p.m.-05:30p.m.
Daily/Total distance: 26.5km (12 skipped) /379.5km (152 hitched/skipped)
Steps: 27145
Weather: sunny and hot

Yesterday I spent a rest day in Hanmer Springs. I did some laundry, picked up my food parcel, visited the thermal pools and had some fish and chips. It was good to relax at the pools although the rash on my legs didn’t make the experience quite as enjoyable.

This morning I got up at 8:30am to slowly get packed. Check out was at 10am so I had plenty of time to get ready. Due to the backpackers rule of no TA backpacks inside the hostel I had not yet packed my bag and had to do this in the morning. All in all I was ready to head off at 10:30am from the hostel.

I walked down towards the edge of town and got a ride towards the junction of the road leading to Hanmer and State Highway 7. Here were also 3 others waiting to get a ride to Windy point at Lewis Pass. I had to wait for about 30min until a woman stopped to give me a lift. She also took in the couple waiting 100m further down the road and we even made room to fit a fourth person into the car. Good fortune for all of us. The woman was on her way from Christchurch to Nelson and bored. She had been hoping to find some hitchhikers to have a bit of a change. 40 min later we arrived at windy point. The others had lunch while I ate a chocolate bar and then headed off.

Due to my allergic reaction to the grass on the last section of the waiau track I opted to wear my longjohns. This felt like torture in the blazing sun but after two sleepless nights due to seriously itching legs this is the lesser of two evils.

At First the track followed a 4 wheel track towards an outdoor education centre through grassy plains that gave me such troubles before.

The track immediately headed off over a swing bridge over a nice river that looked very inviting for a swim.

It then continued up a small hill and the down into the valley behind where it once again went through grassy flats. This made me glad to wear the long johns even if it is way too hot with them.

After three hours I arrived at the Hop half way hut. There was a NOBO inside already. As it was boiling hot in there and full of sandflies, I just signed the intentions book and then continued on my way.

While walking one of the people who were in the car with me overtook me. The others though didn’t seem to catch up to me. The track also went through quite a few muddy bits in the plains where care had to be taken if one wants to avoid having muddy shoes.

At 5:30 I reached my days destination of the Hope Kiwi Lodge. Inside it was very hot. There were also quite a few familiar faces. To my surprise I met the girl who gave me some OSM bars as well as a high protein bar 2 weeks ago before the Richmond’s. Apparently she took a few days off to hop over to Auckland for the Cricket. There were also others who I had met either at the beginning or the end of the previous section. Some I had overtaken with my long day from Anne Hut and others I caught up with due to their longer break in Hanmer.

The hut was overcrowded with sandflies. As it was also unbearbly hot, I opted to pitch my tent outside instead. In the enclosed space I can at least kill all the sandflies off before going to sleep which is impossible inside the hut.

Then I made myself some dinner. I had planned on a ramen bomb with new ramen I had bought. It turned out though that it was seriously spicy and once my food was all done and ready to eat I couldn’t handle the spice. I tried to eat it anyways but after two spoonfuls I gave up. I didn’t fancy having to carry the cooked food out with me. Luckily I found a couple from Australia, travelling musicians who are doing gigs with Harp and Violin along the hike, who finished my food for me. As I couldn’t he bothered to cook a second dish I ended up finishing off the bag of crisps that I had brought. They were strapped to the top of my pack as I was hiking. At one point while climbing onto a swing Bridge I could suddenly smell bacon and knew that the package had been damaged.

At 8:30pm I fled to my tent and went on a killing spree for the sandflies inside. This took about 15min until I finally got them all. Then I sorted though my staff and made sure to pack my food up well enough to protect it from mice. I tried to settle for sleep at 9:30pm. My legs were itching again though and I spent another 30min cooling them with my water bladder. I hope this rash will go away soon as this is seriously annoying. I didn’t even get a good creme to help with this at the pharmacy. All the lady there could give me was allergy medication to which I am already carrying 3 different ones with me with none of the really working-.-

The whole evening, while trying to sleep I could also hear continuous tapping on my tent, like light rain. This came from the sandflies flying against my tent fly over and over.