Yesterday I had a first: I drove on the left side of the road! My friends let me drive their van to our hike. It was fun. I hit the windshield wipers instead of the blinker a couple of times, but otherwise I did okay.
Five of us hiked up Mount Stormy (which is aptly named, it is usually covered in clouds.) The posted sign says it takes 6-8 hours return. We definitely took 8 hours! I haven't done anything like that in quite a while. We crossed two rivers, went over a little ridge with nothing on either side but down, and climbed a very steep and slippery mountain. It was quite a challenge, and I'm pretty sore today, but it felt good to challenge myself like that. The whole climb was really beautiful--we went through a lot of rainforest and saw about 30 different types of moss and Dr. Seuss-looking trees. When we got to the top, there was a beautiful view of a mountain range on one side, Karamea and the ocean on the other. We sat down to eat some lunch, and when we were done we were inside a cloud and couldn't see a thing! The trip down was much easier on my lungs, but it was still slippery and tricky at parts.
Now I'm hoping my feet recover fully by Thursday, when I leave on the Heaphy Track!
