Episode 3

I really want to finish the thing on the Tasman before it is lost forever to the dim recesses of my mind. Okay the cavernous recesses...Oh get on with it. I do think that anything more than a trilogy is never going to fare well at the box office so a condensed run down of highlights of the final three days will suffice, for my purposes anyhow.

Sunday mornings seem to bring out the verbal diahorrea in me unfortunately...

I'm actually sitting here waiting to see if the weather and the hang over of one of my tracking buddies is going to prevent us doing this walk today - the southern walkway

So the third day, that's where we left off, and my whimsical imaginings on the beach at nightfall the previous evening turned to despair when I awoke the next morning and the rain was hammering on our tent. Emerging from the tent I saw the campers around us were hastily packing everything up and then dragging all their soaking gear to the shelter of the kitchen area, huddling there wet and cramped. A short time spent gathering information from the campsite and the Ranger brought more bad news, the rain was likely to hold out throughout the day and the buzz words were water taxi. I was heartbroken, I desperately wanted to complete the entire track, but a conference with the other girls quickly established the fact that they were keen to get off the track entirely if it continued to pelt down. We compromised. We would water taxi to Araroa and cut out one of the bays, camp down for the night and if conditions failed to improve, abandon the Abel Tasman on Easter Monday, a day earlier than planned. You can bus directly out of Totaranui, an hour and a half's hike on from Araroa, but this would mean sacrificing the final leg of the track that promised the most expansive vistas and seclusion (according to a Lonely Planet guide camp mum had brought along) - and the bit I was most looking forward to.

I should have had more faith.

"And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should".

The ride on the water taxi was probably one of the highlights for me. The weather was abominable. High seas and heavy rains. One of the girls suffers from motion sickness, and although she seemed to cope with that element (didn't puke), she was petrified the entire thirty minute voyage. At one point we exchanged a look and I did feel for her, I did, but I was just having waaaaaaaaay too much fun, and she just looked so comical, I was in fits of laughter about the whole thing. The boat wasn't covered and it was still raining, but we couldn't get any wetter now, and for some reason being out on this huge expanse of water, going as fast as the 16 person boat could when it was dropping off the crest of each wave, it didn't seem to matter that I was drenched. I think part of the misery of being rained on is the claustrophobia, not being able to escape it, the fact that us humans wear these ridiculous coverings on our bodies that aren't designed to get wet. Hmmm, naked rainy boat ride..........that would be exhilirating.

Oh, I've been summoned to the Southern walkway. So much for the trilogy, but this was getting too long anyway....