I managed to find a backpack for $4 at the second hand store the other day so I’m finally prepared to attempt the abel-tasman track. Only problem with it is it doesn’t have a waist belt on it so all the weight will rest firmly on my shoulders, should be an interesting 2 day walk for my shoulders at the very least. I’ll leave for that tomorrow and be back out of the woods on Monday evening if all goes according to plan. Tomorrows hike is gonna be at full blast as the ferry pulls into shore at 11:30 and the sun sets at 5:30ish.
I got an email from the Belgian cyclist, Matthew, I toured with that long day into Greymouth the other day. He has pushed on into the north island through some nasty weather. He told me that the weather has been absolutely foul for the past week and couldn’t camp because everything was soaking wet. He got to the point of asking random people to sleep in sheds and other covered spaces. I know i’d be whining about it as well had I been in the rain that much. Fortunately for me I still reside in the sunshine capital of New Zealand and it’s holding up to it’s name quite nicely. Out of the last 2.5 weeks that I’ve been here we’ve seen just about 3 days of rain.
The wwoofing here, as always, has turned out to be a neat experience. I’ve been learning a lot about trees this time, mostly the fruiting type and how to take care of them, aka pruning and transplanting. I’ve also done my part in planting native bush in a Queen Elizabeth II reserve area. I also got wrangled into being a house painter for Ann and Bob as well which usually means I end the day a lot more red than when I started.
The days continue to get shorter by 2 minutes every day which amounts to 14 minutes a week less daylight I have for cycling which makes me think when I get to Wellington it might be best to find another wwoofing gig and wait for the shortest day to pass me by and start gaining daylight once again (June 21 is the shortest day I believe.) I’ve also got the gang I met on the Milford track in Wellington who I’ll get to hang out with for a few days and hopefully get in a long walk over on that side.