Day 7 – Martin’s Hut to Riverton

The weather had finally changed for the better this morning, and it was in a good mood that I descended back to Cascade Rd, a gravel access road I walked down to the Pourakino Valley. I had expected to get a ride into town with relative ease once I was in the valley, but it was a quiet farm road with hardly any traffic. I had to walk the 8 km or so out to the bottom of the valley before I found a slightly less-quiet road and a ride. Even then, I was passed up by several cars until it started raining and a kindly old farmer gave me a ride into Riverton.

I planned to get food and hitch up to Otautau to stay the night, so I’d be closer to Ohai, where I would enter the Takitimus in the morning. However, after waiting a long time on the Riverton-Otautau road, it was clear there was little traffic and even less interest in picking me up, so I stayed the night at a backpacker’s in Riverton. A good thing, too, as it turned out, since I had a chance to call the station whose land I wanted to cross and find that they weren’t the least bit interested in giving me permission to come through. From what I’ve heard and seen so far, New Zealanders are quite particular about their property rights, although some folks tell me this is a recent development in the last five or so years, in response to a wave of litigation by people injured while crossing someone else’s land.