Up early, ie, in the dark after a restless night. Kaz said that breakfast would be waiting for us in the van so that we could get away early. An interesting concept. It was a beautiful sunny morning as we drove though to pick up our kayaks which we would paddle around Milford Sound.
They were double kayaks and with Marion in the back steering and me in the front we set off. It was absolutely stunning. We happened upon what would turn out to be the most photographed seal in the country once we had finished with it, whilst the Kayak instructor filled us in on NZ history ..... which didn't take that long.
For the other members of the group, this was a lovely scenic paddle taking pictures and generally enjoying the view. Not so for Marion and I (AKA team GB). Every now and then we would break into Olympic mode and try and take on team Slovakia and team Russia (who were simply enjoying a lovely paddle). Disappointingly we were only moderately successful in our sprints against competitors who had no idea they were actually in a race. This was down to Marion's erratic steering and me stopping to take pictures mid sprint. In fact, we were sadly even beaten back to base by the hybrid German / Australia team even though one of the 'team' was suffering from travel sickness.
Another drive followed to the campsite, real 'tints' this time on the banks of Lake Monowai where we arrived early evening. This was our first introduction to a long drop, and I can't quite bring myself to describe this one, but I can occasionally still smell it.
Our two man tent was up and it was time for kit inspection. Yes, you read correctly. The following day we were to commence our first overnight hike and it was important that we had all the essentials like thermals, water bottle, waterproofs, hat, torch, sunscreen, cuddly toy. You get the picture. We passed. I was a hiker.
After dinner for the first time we spoke the true global language. That language was alcohol. I slept much more soundly that night.
No comments:
Post a Comment