Day 102,103
29 January 2020
Km 24
Cumulative Km 1,017
It was good to get back on the trail, knowing that it would be an easier track for the next few days. I relaxed at Kinloch Lodge YHA until I got shuttled to the start of the Greenstone track and commenced walking at midday.
The trail was nice and wide and undulating above a brilliantly clear Greenstone River. The track continues through beech forest through the hike. The forest and overcast weather was more pleasant to walk through than the heat of the last week.
The progress was at a good pace until my groin pain returned with about 4km to go to the hut
…and unfortunately didn’t decrease but got a little worse at a time until my motion was restricted again. I knew that I would have to go to the hut and turn around to get back to Queenstown the next day.
I made it to Greenstone hut after 3.5 hours, which was OK for the 12km. I was one of the first to arrive at the hut, which became overflowing with people who still arrived, dead and rained upon until 8pm!! Their moaning and groaning reminded me of me in the first few weeks though.
Looking back, a few days later it seems that this was actually very fortunate as the South of the South Island had extremely high rainfall, causing wide spread flooding, damage to huts and tracks due to landslides and a large number of road closures.
Hundreds of people stranded and many evacuated by helicopter!
