Another gorgeous sunny day and another of the amazing great walks - a coastal path through bush forest, past golden beaches and blue bays. I'm running out of adjectives and superlatives.
We travel from Nelson in the morning, park our car to leave overnight and start the track at Marahau. This is a busy section of track and we don't have a lot of time. It's described as a 4 hour walk and we've a water taxi to meet in less than that. 2 and a little bit hours later and i find myself with time to kill - i should have guessed the times would be very generous. Most of the path is an easy ramble past palms and ferns, lookouts over beaches and bays, and with the good weather it is just lovely. The water taxi is skippered by a madman who only knows full throttle and off. The boat bashes into waves, hovers in midair for an age and then comes back down with a bum bashing bump. It reminds me of being on the Corkscrew roller coaster, great fun for the first 5 minutes until you realise it's bloody uncomfortable and your spine is being pummelled. The skipper gives us a short reprieve by showing us a colony of seals. Afterwards it's another actual 3 hours of walking to get to our hut. It has no electricity or hot water and there are only 4 of us staying the night - an Austrian girl and the loudest Canadian guy I've ever met. It turns out he always has his iPOD on while walking - apart from a ghetto blaster (I'm showing my age), i can't think of a worst way of hiking. So much for getting back to nature. It is difficult to see much wildlife on the trail as there are so many people who do the trail. I am lucky enough though to see several families of birds with their little chicks. If you surprise them, they suddenly scatter and do run around like headless chickens - very cute. In the morning i decide to visit a seal colony and catch up with Tony. It was great to see the seals play and feed, but wow, did it stink. Catching up to Tony i twice get attacked by seabirds 'protecting' their nests on the beach. I have a great video, very Blair Witch Project style of me -desperately running away and being attacked. You cant tell what I'm being chased by, as my camera is on maximum zoom from taking previous photos, all you can hear is me shouting desperately. When i catch up with Tony it turns out he got attacked twice too. In the end he had to grab a stick and desperately wave it around as they wouldn't leave him alone. It's all good stuff.
Another Great walk, another great time, except for the evil blighters called sand flies. They really are little bastards.
