Day 87 - West Harper Hut

I took an extended lazy morning today. I wasn’t in the mood to start hiking right away so took my time in the morning. I went for coffee at the one cafe in town and picked up my Food box from the Sanctuary in town. The sanctuary is a little backpacking lodge run by a guy called Bill. Bill is something like the Trail Angel of the South Island. He receives everyone’s food packages and won’t turn anyone away if they need somewhere to pitch a tent. I simply picked up my food box, but he was very helpful. 

After doing some paperwork I finally started my day around 2:30. I decided to hitch to the start of the track, I’ll be missing about 9km of the trail, but getting someone to drop me off at a sketchy part of the road wasn’t something I wanted to do. Plus the coast to coast marathon was right on the trail where I was suppose to be. I’m keeping track of how many km Ive hitched and how many extra km I’ve done, and as of now I’m net zero km. 

I got picked up my most interesting hitch yet, a full on security transport vehicle. The driver wouldn’t give his name or any personal information. All he said about what he was transporting was that is was for the NZ military. Im surprised he was willing to pick me up. 

The track today was straight up a mountain, which gave some excellent views of Arthur’s National Park. 

I passed the cutest little hut yet. 

I reached the much less cute West Harper Hut. A derelict hut that I’m pretty sure is where they filmed the Blair Witch Project. I camped outside. Not even the million sandflies around my tent would tempt me in there.