Week 4 - Part 1

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Dear Blogg,

AAARRRGGGHH I have done it again!! Just wiped an hours worth of extremely witty and informative blog. Am such an idiot.

Think my creative juices are running a little thin. This diary seemed like a good idea at the time and now it just feels like a bit of a chore. Well I know I will regret it if I stop now, so here we go again.

So, on my second day in Nelson, I took a bus to the Abel Tasman National Park (which is on the north of the south island), and went for a cruise up the coast. It is hard to comprehend how stunning this country is. I keep being presented with more and more impressive scenery and beaches. In fact I have been thinking throughout my whole trip, that this is my favourite beach in the world, no this one is, no actually this one is. You get the picture. So the plan was to walk back from our drop off point at Torrent Bay and walk back to the pick up point. This was supposed to take 4 hours with an extra 2 hours alloted for sunbathing etc. But me being me, instead of walking for a while to work up a bit of an appetite, I just took one look at my 7th 'most amazing beach in the world' and decided that no, 10.45am was not too early to stop for lunch. So I just got off the boat and set too catching a few rays and reading my book and eating my spready cheese and tomato sandwhiches for the alloted 2 hours before I decided to set off back. What I didn't realise was, however that the tide had come in which meant that I had to take a long detour around the shores, adding an extra 1 1/2 hours to my journey. So without trying to panic at the thought that I was going to be stranded in the rainforest for the night, I spent the rest of the afternoon practically running along the track trying to make sure I caught my bus- not as relaxing as I had originally envisioned. But, as is usually the case, this proved to be quite fortuitous, as I spent the rest of the afternoon in the company of a Hobbit called Daniel, my first sighting since arriving here. Daniel (from Israel) was the spitting image of Frodo Baggins- obviously didn't tell him that, and we chatted away, him telling me stories about how his family avoided persecution from the Nazis (his gradfather accidentally killed someone, went to prison, escaped from prison with the help of a rabbi, and fled to South Africa!!! I am not making that up), and me telling him about the virtues of beans on toast in its various forms.

Fortunately for me, the Kiwis aren't too good at predicting travelling distances of long legged english girls in a hurry, and so I made it back to the bus with enough time to get an ice cream- result.

More Later,

Love Fogg

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Comments

[Catrina]

Loving the Blog
Linds, you are without a doubt hilarious. Two points on week 4 Part 1 1. Feel my life enriched by the geological information on rock formations 2. Did I read the words head-torch - I want a photo! Missing you. Catrina