New Zealand 58 Soooo COLD

 It was soooo COLD. Matt and I decided it would be most wise to take our showers early so that we could warm up in the sun for a few hours before the chilly night air set in. 

Luckily, most of the overnighters had not arrived yet so there weren't many people milling about when we stripped down and danced around in the shower, screaming and laughing, trying to stand under the water but gasping every time we touched it. We were so happy to have our thermies (thermal silk underwear) with us to layer under our clothes afterwards.

Matt and Cynthia (to be continued) 

New Zealand 54 Absolutely ecstatic

 The next three hours would not have been too hard if we weren't already so tired but we made the best of it. This piece of the walk was mostly inland and, thankfully, mostly shaded. 

We arrived at Bark Bay around 3pm and I dropped my pack and headed straight for the beach with my "new" Agatha Christie (They Came to Baghdad for you readers, excellent read). Eventually made my way back to the hut and was absolutely ecstatic to find that there was an outdoor cold shower. Absolutely ecstatic..... until I stuck my big toe under the tap.

Matt and Cynthia (to be continued) 

New Zealand 54 Dead Tired

 We trudged through and by the time we reached the other side of the crossing around noon we were simply exhausted. But the fun had just begun because we still had 3 solid hours walking ahead of us. So, if we had lain on the beach until noon and crossed (the crossing takes less than 10 minutes) we would just be starting our walk completely fresh instead of dead tired. Oh well. Torrent Bay was absolutely beautiful but we could not stop to enjoy so I quickly snapped off a few pics and we were on our way. We had already stopped for lunch at a bridge crossing so we were at least a little rested.

Matt and Cynthia (to be continued) 

New Zealand 55 BIG mistake

 This morning we woke very early (just before 6am) because we had to walk around a tidal crossing. With the tidal crossings we had two choices: wait for the bay to be at low tide so that the bay (torrent bay) was low enough to cross OR walk around it. As low tide was not until 2pm and you can only cross 2 hours either side of low tide, we decided to walk around rather than wait until noon.

BIG mistake. For one thing, our shoulders absolutely ached from the previous day's measly haul of a couple hours. And, the walk around was quite steep (which we were not aware of, all uphill) so that what should have taken us 2 hours took 4 hours.

Matt and Cynthia (to be continued) 

New Zealand 54

 She had had all sorts of adventures all over the world and as she was coming from where we were going to, it was cool to get her insight. We also met a sweet couple from Auckland and we all found lots to talk about until it got dark. The huts have no electricity so after the first candle burns out it is pretty much bed time. We were all in bed by half 7, exhausted. As the hut was directly on the beach, we were lulled to sleep by the ocean waves. Fantastic day....

New Zealand 53

 I was SO GLAD I brought them, they proved to be essential. Regarding dinner, almost all of meals we brought consisted of "Backcountry Cuisine" which is basically freeze dried food to which you add boiling water. I know it does not sound appealing and maybe we were just really hungry but it was fabulous. Anyway, during dinner we met a girl named Deidra ("D") from Ireland and she was great, really fun to chat with.

Matt and Cynthia (to be continued) 

New Zealand 52 Anchorage Bay Hut

 We were so tired, we just wanted to lie on the beach motionless so that is just what we did. After awhile I got cold from the breeze so I went inside, crawled into the sleeping bag on the top bunk and was dead to the world for about 2 hours. Matt woke me around 5pm and he made dinner while I cleaned up. I was a bit distraught about the lack of shower facilities but I managed to clean up alright with wet-ones.

Matt and Cynthia (to be continued)