Pt6 Day 19. Anne Hut to SH7 at Boyle Village - 2/04/17

We arose early and got underway at 0645 because of daylight saving change.  Ended up getting to SH7 at Boyle Village at 1545.  Another 9 hour day involving about an hour of rest stops along the way.  GPS data for the day is here.​

We set off from Anne Hut as the sun was rising over the hills back down towards the Waiau.  We quickly met the Anne River and headed up it.  The saddle is only about 350m higher than the hut, so no great exertion involved!  We arrived at Anne Saddle after 2hr and 7.6km, and had 10min break before the sandflies got too annoying. Going had been mainly river flat with some good fast walking, mixed with some swampy areas and the occasional climb through scrubby bush over little ridges where we couldn't walk alongside the river.

Sunrise at 0622. Markus' camera set up on the corner of the deck for a timelapse of the sunrise.

Away through the grass and flowers towards the Anne River.

Very soon hit the Anne River - off up the valley to the saddle.

The occasional bit of bush margin walking.

Even though this river looks quite gentle, it obviously has some teeth when it gets up!

An unexpected boardwalk across a boggy area.

And it then curved around and down to take us across the other side of the river for a while.

You can see the underfoot conditions were generally good here.

Again - enjoying easy walking.

You can tell you are on a well-used walkway (St James) when you get helpful signs like this!

Tunnel effect heading up to the saddle.

Our short break at Anne Saddle after a couple of hours walking.

Anne saddle is only about 1100m asl, after which it was back down another 200m or so and then back into more of the same, flatter, mix as noted above - except this time we were following the Boyle river on the other side of the saddle. Some of the grassy flats were very good underfoot and we were doing along at over 5kph.  As a consequence, we made good progress to Boyle Flat Hut (not stopping at the small Rokeby Hut) where we stopped for an early lunch, after 16.7km! Getting to the hut involves a short 5min detour over a swingbridge, but worth it - even if just to avoid the sandflies while you stop!

B powering down off the saddle :-)

As always, lots of little side streams - nice clean water.

Bumped into three young German lads heading nobo.

Another "wild goose" for B :-)

Boyle River through the trees.

Weird pathway through the boulders.

Looking back at the pathway. Anyway, beats hopping over them!

Approaching Boyle Flat Hut - the swingbridge across to it is underlined in red in the centre!

Pretty good signage everywhere on this section.

Me in Boyle Flat Hut.

View of the horse corral below the hut, for treks that use the hut.

Tidy inside.

We left the hut at 1200 and headed back across the swingbridge and continued downriver, eventually crossing another swingbridge over to the true right of the Boyle. Here we actually started climbing again through the margins of some nice beech forest. Part of the St James Walkway, the track was generally in pretty good condition - still plenty of rocks roots and mud/water but better than usual TA standard!  We then heard a cow mooing for the first time in ages! Eventually saw some more open farmland on the other side of the river, with cattle grazing - even saw a farm ute driving along a track.  The country then opened up a little on our side as well and we could see evidence of the cattle being there recently - no fences to keep them from crossing over the Boyle River. Shortly after this, we stopped for a break (2hr after leaving the last hut) and saw a NZ falcon (karearea) flying over us making a distinctive screech! Quite exciting as neither of us had seen one before

Looking back up the Boyle towards the hut after leaving.

Definite Horse hooves!! B is very keen on the idea :-)

Not sure I'd want to see a horse tackle this bit!!

But there are horsey diversions, indicated by the lime green/yellow arrows.

This is actually a farm boundary fence we are reliably informed!

With its own horse gate - works for humans as well :-)

Bit of bush walking ..........

....... with views out to the valley still.

Panorama gives some sense of perspective.

Cattle spied for the first time in a while.

Activity in the form of a farm ute!

Couldn't resist - relic of a bygone era??!!

Still going hard :-)

Nearing a stop for a break

It was here we saw our first karearea (NZ falcon). Cool!

​We only stopped for less than 10 minutes as the sandflies had found us again! We continued down the river until about 5km from Boyle Village where another swingbridge took us back to the true left of the river where we continued down to the Boyle carpark and then straight out to SH7.  There was a little DoC area to pitch a tent if required but we had planned to try and hitch into Hanmer, especially as it was only 1545 having made good time.

Horse diversion! POinted out to B that the horsey triangles were fittingly nailed on with horseshoe nails!

Pretty little river.

Info board near the Boyle River Outdoor Education Centre, SH7.

About 20 cars must have passed our thumbs without stopping before a lady pulling out of the Boyle carpark stopped. She was a lovely Slovenian lady who had been living in NZ for four years with her English husband, who has a job on the Chch rebuild. She had been out tramping and was heading back to Chch so offered to drop us at the Hanmer turnoff. We chatted lots over the 50km or so and as we got to the turnoff she VERY kindly offered to take us right into Hanmer, for which we were very grateful as it saved us waiting on another ride!  She dropped us off at the Kakapo Lodge (YHA) where we managed to get a completely self-contained room for 3 nights, after which it was into an ensuite room with no kitchen facilities for one night (slumming it! - prior booking on the self contained room for Wed night). We started to catch up on all the internetty things as we had been (pleasantly!) out of cellphone reception for all five days since leaving St Arnaud!  Had a big clean of ourselves and clothes - then did a bit of a quick shop and got some takeaways for dinner!  Eggs and bacon with toast (for me at least) for breakfast tomorrow!