We stayed the night with our first trail angels, Becs and Moana-Rose in their caravan at Matangi... breakfast provided. Early rise to catch the shuttle with Mother Darryl to the Hamilton airport for our 07:10 flight to Wellington.
Three hours and three champagne breakfasts later (courtesy of the Koru lounge at Wellington Airport), we were off on our connecting flight to Invercargill.
Arriving in Invercargill around 14:00, we set out on foot to head into town and onto SH1 south. There we put our thumbs in the air and started making progress south. Seven kilometers, and an hour and a half later we reached Clifton, with still no luck in finding a hitch. We changed tactic and posted up under the 22 km to Bluff sign. Less than two minutes later a good fella took pity on us and gave us a lift to Bluff. He'd seen us some time prior on his way into Invercargill.
En route we saw three NOBO's on the road walk section. We'll probably catch them up in the coming days as two of them were quite heavily laden.
Went for a walk around Bluff, then checked into the Bluff Lodge backpackers. The hostess, Kay, is the personification of southern hospitality. She gave us rather an enthusiastic full tour of the building. It dates back to 1899 and was constructed as the post-office. She put us up in the king bedroom for a cheap rate on the condition that we let all the SOBO's know about how great the place is. Our pleasure Kay.
Fish and chips for tea, and a small shop at the four square for snacks and lunch for tomorrow for our first day on the trail.