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...I wake up to a very frosty morning and after boiling some tea I start walking back. I came here down the valley route, this time the sky is cloudless and majestic, so I take the crest route to go back.
...a girl I meet in the hut last night catches up with me on the return ascent and walks ahead. I try to keep up but she's really fast. She gets on my ambition and after an hour of chase I catch up to her and we talk. A very nice traveler from Holland with an exotic name, traveling alone too. We have a nice time talking.
...we are making great time and finally we part ways at a junction where she goes off to another hut and I am only left with an hour's descent through the forest to the parking lot. It's early, I'm relaxed
...as soon as I walk into the forest trails peters out or I lose it and I become hopelessly stranded amid the trees. I have 400 m to go down to the parking lot so I walk down the slope across tree trunks, broken branches, crumbling forest floor, weeds etc. Steep, slippery. I fall often but I just keep going down in a straight line. More or less. But when the 450 m of elevation have passed and the forest is still thick I realize I have no idea where I am or where to go.
...I find some random trail markers but only one or two at a time and they don't seem to point to any consistent route. It's all a jungle with no discernible trail. At least it's warm, nice and I have water. But the descent is very taxing and I'm all sweaty.
...I get a brilliant idea of checking my cellphone, which had already died with the cold last night. I turns out the warmth has awake it. I turn it on and no bars of course but hey the gps is working. I am terribly off course! Just maybe 1 km from the parking lot but I am walking in a very wrong direction. So I establish a bearing on the phone and compass and as the phone only has 10% battery left I switch it on and off just to check my progress and navigate on my compass. After some arduous traverse of the slope and some climbing (yes I had descended too far!) and another hour I arrive at a road leading to the parking lot. It was supposed be an hour's descent, but took four.
...I realize Kiwis use hazard lights to thank each other for favors on the road. Like we do in Poland. Good to know!
...I appreciate how before most sharp curves the recommended speed on the curve is indicated
...I find some cool new mailboxes
...happy to be safe I set out to my next destination - the scenic Whakariki beach. I pass the scenic Tasman costal range on some switchback roads and after 3 hours I arrive. The beach is stunning at sunset, I take some photos and fall asleep in the car.
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