Due to Cyclone Gita descending on the South Island this week I’m going to take a couple of days off the trail and also skip a short section that is both very vulnerable to bad weather and also logistically quite complex. It’s a short section, so it’s just not worth the effort to stick around and wait just to be able to do it. That being said, here are some of my plans for my days off.

Currently I’m in Geraldine. I need to eventually get up to Methven where my box of spare stuff should be waiting, and then from there it should be straightforward to get to Lake Coleridge to get started on the next leg of the trail, 5 days up to Arthur’s Pass. There’s no direct bus service from Geraldine to Methven. But there is an Intercity bus to Ashburton, about 40 minutes away from here. It’s a larger town than both Geraldine an Methven and more suitable for taking a couple of days off. There’s also a place there I can buy a kindle to replace my dead one which will make me extremely happy you have no idea. Not gonna lie, this is a big factor in this planning.

From there I’ll probably hitch up to Methven on Wednesday, spend the night there and get myself up to the trail Thursday morning. Since the first day is moderately long I’m probably going to try to hire a service rather than hitch because I need to get there reasonably early to get walking. I don’t know what that’ll look like just yet but I’ve got plenty of time to do that over the next few days, between drinking lots of delicious coffee and reading my shiny new kindle!

I’m looking to stay at a backpacker in Ashburton, so hopefully I’ll be able to find some folks to hang out with there!