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Wellington...So I may have slept through my alarm, and so did Tristan...I woke up at 6.55pm. We had planned to leave the hostel at 6.30am to be at the ferry for 7am. Ops! So I jumped out of bed, threw my bags on my back, grabbed Tristan out of his room and we jumped in a taxi down the road. Somehow we just made it in time Phhew!!! I haven't done that before J
On the ferry everyone was sleeping...I did some research about the South Island and enjoyed the views! We jumped on the Stray bus and headed to Nelson...where I 'hopped off again' and went to TasminBay hostel which is such a cute and cosy hostel and for $25 a night I get free chocolate pudding, free breakfast, free tea and coffee and surprisingly free wifi! I'm currently sat by the log fire listening to a guy play the classical guitar. It's so nice here. It feels like my living room J really chilled place. I went to grab some food and met up with Josh (English guy I met in Wellington). We went to the information centre and planned our 2 day walk for tomorrow...it's going to be FUN! Can't wait and it's only $5 to stay in the hut...yey my first cheap night here!
So it's currently 11pm, and I'm well and truly knackered one may say (sorry mum for using that word!) but I look it too so I must head to bed...
Night, buenas noches, bon nuit (just showing I'm still learning my French and Spanish on my app! Hehe)
6 July and Josh and I set off for our 5 and a half hour walk along Duns track just outside of Nelson village. It was a beautiful sunny morning so we were both extra excited about the trek up the mountain J By 9.30am we were up, fed, washed, made a visit to the Information centre and had started our walk. The first part of the trek involved a constant incline for about 1 hour but up an easy walking track. Then we followed an old railway track through the forest...until we came out of the forest to be presented with a rather impressive view of the mountains and sea. It was such a clear day, we sat on a rock and had some lunch looking out at the view, in the most peaceful surroundings ever. By 1.30pm we made it to the end of one of the trails, and it was time to venture out to find the hut the information lady had recommended us to stay in. So we followed the sign that was pointing us in the correct direction....or was it?! Clambering along a stream, hopping from rock to rock down this steep valley and through bushes we soon realised that we weren't on the right track...in fact, we weren't even on a track! OPS! We had several stops to look at the map and figure out which direction we were meant to be going in, and then carried on walking to see if the hut was just around the corner. A few corners later, there was no hut! And it was starting to get late in the day and if we wanted to make sure we were back on a proper track by dark, we thought it best to head back to the signs that initially pointed us in this direction. We had increased the pace even more, it almost felt like we were running up the valley, we had numerous falls, both our feet ended up slipping into the river so our feet were soaked through. I was also getting quite tired at this point, my legs were getting weaker as you couldn't see where you were stepping when we were trekking through the bushes, it was impossible to see. As we stormed back up the valley to the sign, we realised we had taken ourselves over 2 hours in the complete wrong direction. As we both were still in 'panic' mode that we were not going to make it to the hut by dark, we stood there staring at the sign and ended up running from one side of the mountain top to the next, trying to figure out which direction we should have walked in, and deciding if we should simply turn around and walk back to the van where we knew how long it was and where we needed to go. Luckily in the process of doing this, Josh spotted an orange triangle which looked like a proper track and it was at that point we just stood there staring at each other in shock that neither of us had noticed it when we were here before. There was nothing we could do but laugh it off and we made the decision to try and make it to the hut rather than head back as it was bound to be shorter.
An hour and a half of climbing along the mountain ridge and clambering up trees through the forest (I actually felt like we were on Fredo's adventure from Lord of the Rings film) ...we FINALLY arrived at the hut. And it was still light. There was no time for resting though because we had to find wood for the fire. There was hardly any wood in the hut, so we ended up fetching branches and trees until it was dark. Then Josh had the task of axing the tree's into smaller pieces that would fit in the log fire. I'm so glad he was there, because there was no chance I would have been able to cut up the wood with the axe. He was ploughing through it like a skilled carpenter (if you can say that!) Genius! Go Josh J We managed to start the fire, and it was time to cook our food. We had a right feast (of course, I was with a bloke after all), so we had pumkin cuppa soup, some awesome cheese toasties that we cooked on the top of the log fire and then some pasta and pesto that I had made the previous day. For dessert, we tucked into Josh's bag of cookies whilst watching the Lord of the Rings 3 and attending to the fire. We didn't last long watching the film, we were both fast asleep within 10 minutes of starting it, but it was 11pm at this point, so I think we did well. Unfortunately the fire didn't last all night, so it was a little cold, but nothing I couldn't handle!
We managed to sleep until 8am the next morning...by 9am, we had eaten breakfast, packed up and cleaned the hut out. We weren't quite so lucky today - there was no sun, in fact we couldn't see a thing, we were up in the clouds and it decided to tip it down as soon as we started the hike. This was a test of our waterproof jackets, but in all fairness however good quality our jackets were they had no chance...we were soaked through, from top to toe, feet squelching in the shoe puddles that had developed, my fingers had puffed up from being in wet gloves all morning...the rain was actually hurting when it hit me, it felt like someone was shooting pellets at me, and the rain was moving horizontally. I have never see rain like this before! (The next day, we find out that the whole island was effected by the unpredicted 'stormy' conditions, trees had been blown down, trucks pushed over..it sounded pretty serious). So, in conclusion it wasn't a very comfortable return walk to say the least, but definitely character building and testing us mentally to keep our spirits high (which both of us managed!) We also were able to cut the 5 hour walk down to just 3 and a half hours. We were so happy to see Josh's van, and even happier when we returned to TasminBay hostel, for a warm shower, clean clothes, and of course delighted to tuck into some more chocolate pudding J. It was a good two days!
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