(2400-2600km) Sweet home Hawea

Into Tekapo village. Tareks family came to feed the hikers. Vegetables, fruits, nuts, lunch, Swedish sweets. Christmas party at the lake. Everything is closed except for one fish&chips. Lake smells extremely like weed. Can't explain it. Stealth camp in the pines.

Lake Pukaki. Boring along the canal. Read a book while walking. Rain closing in from far. Hide out under small birch trees. Rabbits hide next to me. Finally make it until Lake Pukaki. Meet Maartje from the Netherlands. Bath in the lake, camp in the pines.

Ohau River. Slept in. Empty rolling hills and white Mt. Cook in the distance. Catch up to Melissa and Chris in town. Food, laundry, charging, WiFi, resupply. Twizel Salmon Farm: Some people go to heaven after death. Anglers go straight to this canal. Camp at the river. No tent. Just stars and sandflies and dew in the morning.

Ohau river, Ohau lake. Thausands of rabbits. Cold morning, hot day. Vast gras lands as usual. Eventually a pine forest and Huriri river. Nobos said it's hips deep. Barely get my knees wet. Again too lazy for tent.

Leaving the Huriri river. Grass, grass grass. All the bones of a dead cow. We rearrange them to write the name of our friend "TAREK". Upwards, downwards. Top Timaru hut has no toilet door. Sidling along the river. Dangerous cliffs and stingnettles. Loose boulder rolls and scratches my leg. Blood running into my shoes. Following down Timaru river. Bush-wacking through dense thorns. Rough terrain. Camp on clearing. Another crazy day.

Plop, plop, plop. No rain, but sandflies crashing the tentwall. Catch two trouts in Timaru river. Reunion at Sailz restaurant Lake Hawea. Meet my former coworkers in the kitchen and place an extra picky order. Used to live here for three months. Along the bike trail into Albertown. Cook the trouts with Jasmin, my personal trailangel. Time to start panicking. This is coming to an end too soon.

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