Hello again. . . Well I am back from my little adventure. . . am currently sat in a very nice café in Nelson, a little annoyed as I wanted to go fishing today, but the weather out at sea isn't looking so d=good, so it had to be cancelled. . . . . Anyway, I am well, if not a little tired after my few days away!

I had a great time over the last 3 days, first of which was the kayaking. . . . . There was a strong threat of rain, but that didn't really bother me as it couldn't be worse than the rain in Milford Sounds. . . . . It did drizzle a little at first but soon cleared up to be a beautiful day. . . . . We got kitted out and then headed out on to the water at the start of the Able Tasmin National Park. . . . . I think we did about 15km in the day, but it was quite easy as we had the wind and current on our side. . . . I did however have a Swiss German girl in my kayak with and I don't think she quite got the concept of paddling. . . . Just the occasional wetting of her paddle seemed to be enough for her. . . . ?!?!? Still, being super fit, I didn't mind too much! The coastline was awesome, as you can imagine. . . ? There was lots of bird life and remote beaches that you could only get to from the water. . . . . I could imagine this place being rammed in the summer?!?

We took a reasonably steady paddle north and I had a good chat with the guide about all sorts of things. . . He has been doing tour guide stuff in NZ and OZ for years and related to a lot of places I had been, so we exchanged a few comical stories and the day moved along pretty nice! We stopped at a few spots, first for a cuppa and then a bit longer for lunch. The place was so tranquil and surreal! We got to our drop off point earlier than anticipated so went a bit further up the coast to the opening of a river. We mozied on up the river and chilled out in the peace and quiet of the forest. . . . . Loads more wildlife and stuff to see. . . Very nice!

We headed back to the drop off beach, Anchoridge. This was my sleeping place for the evening, just a very basic hut, not electricity, just a plastic mattress and bunk beds! I had all my supply's, cooking equipment, sleeping bag, etc, etc and was ready for a chilled out evening. As it is winter here it got dark quite early, so after you had eaten and read for a bit in candle light, you get quite tired, so early night for me. . . . . However before all that, I have one more adventure to tell you about. . . . .

The kayak guide had mentioned some caves at the end of the beach and said they were worth exploring at night, so that sounded like a plan. . . . . Not really wanting to go off in the dark, mentioned it to the 2 guys also staying in the hut that night and they said why not, so off we went down the other end of the beach in search of 'Glow Worms'! We got to the caves and saw a few glow worms, my first experience, so it was pretty cool. If you have no idea what I am talking about, glow worms are basically little worms with fluorescent green heads, so when there are lots of them in the dark, it look pretty cool. . . . . There were a number of cave type structures around and we checked in them all, however one of them I had to make a shark exit from. . . . . . It was a narrow place and very deep with lots of glow worms the further you got in. . . . All was going good until me and Nick (one of the guys) heard this growling noise, well we didn't stick around to find out exactly what it was. . . . . To be honest I s**t myself! So after that little fright and a good laugh about it once I was safe distance away, the evening was pretty much done and it was only about 8.30pm. . . . . . So I read a bit more in candle light and then called it a night!

Up early, as it was freezing and I also needed to get a move on for the low tide crossing I needed to do. . . . . After a quick breakfast of muesli and banana I packed up my stuff and headed off. The walk was a scheduled 6 to 7 hours, but I needed to get a pace on to get across the low tide points as I wanted to cover a fair distance to my next hut in Aworoa. . . . . Al in all I did 4 low tide crossing, got my feet wet in the process, but only up to just below the knees at worst, so I achieved my goal. . . . . The walk was great, however carrying my backpack was harder than I thought it would be. . . . . ! After a day of kayaking and then carrying that thing, I was pooped, my shoulder were killing me. . . . . I got to the last water cross over and it wasn't as bad as I though it was going to be, so as the sun was out I though I would stop for lunch. . . . . Nick and Matt the other 2 guys had the same idea, but as soon as we had unloaded, the heavens opened again, the cloud appeared and it rained! Nice!? It had been raining on and off all day, but all I wanted was 30 minutes or so for lunch, but no! hmmmmm. . . . . . . . So, with a slightly grumpy face, I loaded up, chucked my backpack back on and headed off towards Aworoa hut. . . . . I was on a mission, hungry and tired. . . . . The last few Km's seemed to last for ages, but then I saw it in the distance and the sun was shining again. . . . . Like an haven calling me, I seemed to pick my pace up for the last push and arrived, dumped my bag on the floor, kicked my boots off and crashed on the veranda. . . . . . I was in heaven, it was great. . . Just the thought of not having to carry that bag for the rest of the day was an awesome feeling! Bobby was happy!

There were 2 girls already at the hut and the 2 guys from the night before arrived about an hour after me, followed by another 5 or 6 people, so the hut was relatively busy, especially for this time of the year anyway! The night was pretty much the same as the last, without the growling experience. . . . . . Food, reading by candle light, lots of Sudoku puzzles and an early night!

I slept a lot better that night and gave myself a bit more of a lie in as the low tide crossing I needed to do was right next to the hut and low tide was around 10.30am, so after breaky, I just chilled out in the morning sun and watched everyone pack up and leave. I was only doing a shortish walk, about 2 hours, so didn't need to rush off. . . . . Once packed up I took a very steady walk to my water taxi pick up point, first over the huge estuary crossing, wading through various water channel, the water seemed a llt colder than the previous day, maybe as the crossings were longer?!? Blimey, it was cold! My feet soon warmed up again once I got moving though. . . . . . I stopped at a few remote beaches on the way and made it to my pick up point with plenty of time to spare!

I set up a little camp on the beach and had my lunch and made some hot soup and then tea. . . . . . The sun was shining, which helped a lot, however the sand fly's were an absolute pain, I must have been bit about twenty times! I nodded off on the beach and did some Sudoku puzzles until around 3pm and then my water taxi turned up! We had a few more pick up's and drop off, as I was the furthest away, so I had some time ahead of me in the boat. The guy was cool and we chatted about fishing and stuff, before we got some more passengers. . . . . . There was one more girl to pick up and they we were heading home. . . . . Slight problem though. . . . . She wasn't there?!?! She had been dropped off earlier and she was walking about an hour and a half to the next beach, not difficult really, only one track, clearly sign posted! However this crazy little French girl had obviously got confused with turn left (tourner à gauche) and don't turn right (ne pas tourner juste)! So after checking lots of beaches south of her pick up point and radioing around, one of the guides headed off into the track to see if she had fallen and hurt herself. . . . Meanwhile, I said "Is there any chance she got confused and went north, i.e. Right"? The guy looked at me and said "No, she couldn't have done, we gave her a map and explained the way, etc, etc, and asked her several times if she knew where she was going and she had said yes". . . . . Anyway, to cut a longish story short, she had got confused and turned right and was 10mins away from her original drop off point?!?! You have to laugh really, not exactly a big walk for her?!?!

Anyway, the guides were clearly unimpressed, so nailed it back to base and unloaded everything faster than I imagine them doing normally as the light was dropping fast. . . . . I got back to my car and headed back towards Nelson for the night. . . . . . I decided to stay in a different hostel, just for a change nearer the center. After getting checked in, the first thing I did was have a nice long hot shower. . . . Followed by a trip to the local pub for some stodgy food and a well deserved beer! That pretty much wiped me out, so I headed back to the hostel and crashed in front of the TV and watched 'Sin City' before hitting the sack. . . . . !

I slept like a dream, but set my alarm early as I was expecting a phone call around 8am about a possible fishing trip. . . .The phone call came, but with bad news. . . . . Due to high winds out at sea, it had to be cancelled, Doh! So that brings me back to the start. . . . I am in a nice little café in Nelson and am now having a beer. . . . . ! Happy days!

Well, gonna move on again tomorrow towards Blenheim and Picton, but will wait and see if I get a call in the morning about fishing again?!?! On the way to the north east I will pass through Wine country, so may try a few vineyards on the way?!? Will let you know how it all goes soon. . . . Ciao for now people and take it easy. . . . !