Our first full Skinsless day. While I won’t go so far as to say we had withdrawal symptoms; his farting, egoism and pissing outside of the campervan door was sorely missed.
After having a fairly expensive, yet inactive holiday so far we decided we’d do what we can to change it for the next week or so- New Zealand is a naturally beautiful place and is famed for it’s hikes and walks, or if you’re a Kiwi or Aussie its ‘tramps’.
We went up the coast past Greymouth to a place called Punakaiki famous for its pancake rocks and blowholes. Both of which were amusing and interesting, though not spectacular, and certainly nothing you can’t see to some extent on the south coast of Ireland.
We visited the tourist centre in Punakaiki to do a bit of research around the Fox River Caves, a cave system a couple of hours walk inland with a few unabridged river crossings en route. Possibly the only thing in NZ you do not have to pay for (I suspect because to police entry to the cave itself would be a fairly impossible task), or are not obliged to buy photos of yourself doing afterwards. The very helpful assistant lent us her head torch and told us that the track was very well signposted all the way to the caves.
We began our walk down some scrubby tracks, across rivers and up some very steep terrain following the illusive orange triangles dangling from trees. The walk itself was quite difficult, with some assents so steep it was more like climbing, and made even more difficult by the slippery moss on the rocks.
When we got to the cave, and Lucia had finally plucked up the courage to enter the pitch black whole we spent about 20 minutes walking to the end of the cave system which was also quite challenging in itself, mainly because of the single torch!
When we emerged again it had started raining, so all of a sudden the rocks were more slippery, and lots of mini streams had sprung up right across our track. We made it back to the van with one fairly minor fall, four fairly wet feet and two very hungry stomachs.
After lunch we headed for Lake Rotoroa, but for one reason or another decided to shoot straight past it and head for Tapawera, where we docked up for the night. The campsite itself was fairly cheap, but unlike the previous night we got what we paid for and stayed in a crap hole.
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