The weather - despite the forecast of rain - was beautiful today. I set off for the Abel Tasman National park at 7.30 am on a bus which took detours via, the bus station for the driver to catch up on the mornings gossip, the local bakery to pick up a delivery for a cruise boat and a school in the middle of nowhere to drop off 3 kids - a multi talented bus eh! Finally arrived at Kaitukituki and caught a watertaxi. Onto the boat where there has been another interesting interpretation of my name so for today I answer to "Kathy Kathy" they didn't even bother to work out the Hodgson part this time!!!!????? MY NAME ISNT HARD!!!! K - A - T - I - E! any way we decided that this Kathy Kathy person was me and it was time for a FREEZING cold boat journey - I had four layers on, gloves a scarf wrapped around my neck AND head and a hat and I still couldn't stop my teeth from chattering! But there was no way I was sitting inside and missing the lovely scenery! On the way to Anchorage we went past "Split Apple Rock"(Photo) a spherical rock perfectly split in two that looked slightly like an apple if you really used your immagination! The boat dropped me on a deserted beach, the sea was a beautiful blue/green colour but I had no desire for a quick dip! Off the boat and out of the wind the weather was lovely and actually quite warm! It was so lovely tramping through the forest every so often catching a glimpse of a perfectly reflecting lake, deserted little private beach bays and snow covered mountains! I had four hours in these perfect surroundings with just my music and my thoughts.
The track I was on was 12km long and was predicted to take 4 hours - I naturally marched along it and apart from a little incline at the start it was pretty easy flat walking. making as many detours to the private beaches as possible, taking a 30 minute lunch break and a 30 minute "chillax in the sun break" I just about managed to make the whole walk take 4 hours and then had 2hrs15mins to kill until the bus was due to pick me up!
Had a pretty boring evening apart from a 2 hour long argument with my backpack! I was pretty much lying my whole body on it to make it zip up and yet it still managed to put up a very good fight! I don't understand how my clothes are expanding!!!!!! 6 weeks in and me and my backpack already have a little bit of a tense relationship!