Monday 17th January - Anchorage Bay to MarahauBeach

After a very uncomfortable night, Ant and I were up at 7:00 am making sandwiches for our hike today.We are booked on the 9:00 aqua taxi to AnchorageBay from where we will hike the coastal path back to MarahauBeach - a distance of 11 kilometres (the full track is 54.4 km with huts and campsites along the way and can take 3-5 days to hike)

At 8.30 the bus picked us up for the short drive to the aqua taxi terminal where we were split into groups.The water taxis are in the car park on great big trailers which are then towed to the water's edge by a tractor!!It was great fun being towed along the streets so high up - the taxis are a life boat grade speed boats and after being launched, we bounced along the waves at quite a speed.I was a bit worried as I didn't take any travel sickness tablets!!! After a short tour of the bay to take some photos of Split Apple Rock, the driver dropped us off at AnchorageBay (a wet landing!!!)

We were still a bit sore from the Tongariro crossing on Friday so a gentle coastal walk was just what we needed to loosen up the muscles.Unfortunately, the first 20 or so are all up a steep hill!! We made it to the top where there were some amazing views across the bay.The walk was fairly gentle from this point on until we reached StillwellBay (about half way) where we clambered down the cliff and scrambled over the rocks to have our picnic lunch on the beach watching the water skiers.After lunch we climbed back up the cliff we continued along the coast path to AppletreeBay for some more amazing views. Back at MarahauBeach, we watched the horses on the beach before heading to the café for a well deserved banana thick shake (a fresh banana blended with family ice cream).

The campsite was quiet when we got back so we took the opportunity to have a shower (first one in 2 days!!!!) and chill out with our books.Jana and I also caught up on our journals / blogs.At the supermarket the previous day, we had bought some fresh salmon and veggies so Ant managed to cook a very nice dinner under very trying circumstance before the rain set in.Hope the rain clears before we have to pack up tomorrow morning!!!