After an early night in preparation for the walk in the morning I woke up a couple of times overnight to hear the rain hammering down, then I woke again and couldn’t hear anything, then woke again and it was raining hard again! Not looking good huh?
I eventually get up at 6.30 am and get ready to go on the walk, I had sorted out all my lunch and wet weather gear the night before and I was ready, so it seems were about 10 cockroaches in the kitchen area which was a bit of a shock to the system at that time in the morning, and these weren’t the small variety that you normally see, these were absolute whoppers at around 2.5 inches long! Not a great sight in the morning but then I have had worse! J I later discovered that the lady running the hostel, instead of killing them, rounds them up like lost friends each morning and places them outside again. I wouldn’t be surprised if each evening she rounded them up again and bought them inside out of the elements! Now I’m an animal lover but I do draw the line at cockroaches, all living things big and small deserve to live I know that, but cockroaches??
Anyway, so there I was heading out for the walk. It wasn’t the rain so much that bothered me it was more the fact that I wouldn’t actually see anything on the walk because of the rain which wasn’t really the point in doing it. When I got to the water taxi office I was the only one booked for that taxi, mmm typical huh? Only person crazy enough to contemplate it with a severe weather warning in place. So despite having plans for tomorrow morning I’ve now booked on to the same time taxi again. In the meantime, plans for the day..........
I kinda have plans to head for some lakes and do some walking around there, but that’s just the same isn’t it?? Maybe I’ll head into Nelson and check out what’s there or maybe I’ll make some plans for the rest of my trip, or maybe I’ll do some work towards the business (hugely overdue) or maybe or maybe.............! Who knows, maybe another cup of tea to decide.
So the decision, in the end, was to head off to Ngarua caves for some fantastic limestone formations and some ancient Moa bones, which was really interesting. Moa were birds that were similar, but not the same as, modern Kiwi, flightless and with heavy bones like humans and living a long long long time ago!
The caves (and no thats not me!!)
When we emerged from the caves it was not exactly sunshine but it was certainly very slightly drier than when I went in, so on this basis I decided that it was probably good to do the walk through the Abel Tasman National Park now. I raced down to the Aqua-taxi to see if I could get a ride out to the start point and although I had all my gear in the car I had forgotten my towel and as it was a wet landing I raced back to the hostel to grab it, however, by the time I had headed back down to the village again, maybe 10 mins later max, the weather had come in and it wasn’t looking good again, and by the time I had got a bumpy ride to the start point it was positively raining!!
The aqua-taxi is good fun. You board the boat outside of the office, on dry land (!), and then by tractor you are towed down onto the beach, across the beach and into the water, it’s certainly a unique experience!
Aqua -taxi
Something I love about travelling is the different kind of people you meet.
So for half of the day it’s been raining constantly and persistently, it’s positively wet out there! There’s then been about a half hour break in the weather and chances are it’s gonna rain again. So I have with me, perhaps too much I admit, but I have waterproof jacket, waterproof trousers, a poncho, hiking boots and 3 litres of water. On the boat there are 4 others who are similarly kitted out to me but the others.......... well the others have no backpack and therefore no water (this is a 13 km walk) and one girl who I really felt for had a nice little knitted twin set and jeans on (!!) no waterproof and no water. The aqua-taxi journey seemed to be a real ordeal for her, I’m really not sure how shes gonna get on for the rest of the walk.
The walk was really lovely despite 90% of it being in the rain, it was actually pretty flat (always nice) and through the bush which was interesting. It took me just 3 hours to do which was pretty good going despite stopping for photos at different points, being careful not to drown the camera. A nice walk out though despite the rain!
A view on the way (inbetween the rain)
At the end of the walk you come out into the world again and I came across a fantastic little craft/art shop/house which had some lovely unique things and some amazing sculptures in the gardens, like this one.
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