Today – 18.2km from Hamilton Hut to Harper Campsite

Total- 2206.8

Woke to drizzle and rain and snuggled back in to read more of my book while drinking coffee.

It was the perfect hut morning, and no pressure to get moving quick as I knew today would be a relatively short easy day.

Finally got going after 10! Definately one of my later morning but very enjoyable. Day started off pretty chilly, and headed into the forest briefly before emerging onto the riverbed.

Today was following an old 4WD track which followed the Harper river, zigzagging through loads of water crossings so a refreshing wet feet day.

Beautiful misty mountain atmosphere today. Lots of great scenery and this valley felt huge, like I was the only human there.

Passed a viewpoint for some interesting rock formations, the Pinnacles.

Stopped for lunch and had a great chill out sesh with boots off, enjoying some peanut butter and chip wraps.

Only a day or so left with these boots, definately time for some new ones!

Passed the 2200km mark, and that means already done more than 500km in the South Island. Time is moving quicker than I’d like!

It’s amazing how much you can achieve by just moving forward each day. Even the days where you take it easy, or dont feel like you have made good progress are all little chips away at the bigger chunk. And it all adds up. Hard to believe less than 800km left of this adventure!! That’s like walking 90 Mile beach 8 times.

The trail meandered through the 4WD track then met a dirt road and after another few km I arrived at my campsite for the night pretty early, about 3ish.

I’m staying at the free campsite near Lake Coleridge, as it’s the last place you are allowed to camp before Lake Coleridge. It’s one of the few places in the South Island you cannot just pitch your tent anywhere in the next 25km due to private land farms around.

Awesome that theres this great camp with a nice clean toilet and water. Cheers to Trust power for providing a sweet spot.