Haha Mount.Hooker

Day 24. Over priced Haast

Lake Paringa to Pleasant Flats

Daily total: 100.71km Running Total: 1599.92km

Lake Paringa. Better in the photo than in real life.

Haast is a confusing place. It is made of many tiny disjointed Haasts that combine to form a mega Haast. There is Haast Beach, Haast Township, Haast Junction and Haast Pass. Haast is remote, due to it's location, food is really expensive from the shop. So stock up before or your wallet will take a severe beating.

The road to Haast is forgettable. I genuinely cannot reminder large sections of it, so in a way its unforgettable in the sense I have not forgotten the fact that I have forgotten large chunks. There was the long bridge where a lady I let past in her car used some intricate hand gestures at me. No idea if they were positive or negative or just her waving away a bee. 

The Waving Lady Bridge and sand flies. Of course there was sand flies.

From Haast the road becomes interesting with mountains hiding in the background under a veil of cloud. Teasing me by occasionally revealing themselves. The campsite at Pleasant Flats, looks out over a huge flat plane with Mt. Hooker looming in the background.

DOC seem to measure some distances by how the crow flies. So one of the distances they gave and I was going by was stated as 40km but in reality it was 50km and another turned from 45km to 50km! So an extra 15km in total, which was noticeable as the final 10km was hard.  Very hard. Every part of me tired. The hunger rampart. 

I tired very quickly documenting the different Bluff related signs. There was also a Half Bluff, Small Small.

Mt. Hooker looming in the distance.

At this stage, I am unsure to what the plan is after Wanaka/Queenstown. Part of me wants to end the journey sooner rather than later while another part just wants to keep going. Two things are certain though, Bluff and Slope Point are happening. With Bluff being the final port of call. Then the big question that needs answering 'What next after Bluff?' A question that I have pushed to the back of my mind but one I know I will have to deal with it soon. All I know at this stage that this has been a hard week and there is more rain to come...as shown in the photo below from 10pm. The wall of rain looming in the distance...

In the distance, impending rain.