Sweetest camping spot ever.

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Trip Start Nov 07, 2010 Previous
Entry Trip End Apr 15, 2011 Next
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  Port Robinson, South Island, New Zealand
Monday, January 31, 2011

I woke up this morning, all bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to face the day! Until I realized that the sound that woke me was the driving rain and 60km/hr winds hitting the tent, in it’s nice, sheltered spot. So I went back to sleep until about 0800. Finally, I was hungry and bored enough to peel the sleeping bag off of my merino wool coated body and crawl out of the tent. It wasn’t raining as much as it had seemed in the tent, and the wind was actually nice since it was keeping away all the sand flies.
Drew and I packed things up with surprising speed and accuracy this morning, and steered the old Nissan towards Hanmer Springs. When we got there, we found out that to go into the pool was going to cost us $18 each. As previously mentioned, this is too much for my cheap blood.  Actually, how much does it cost to go to Miette? Please let me know in the comments section, or by sending me some mail...$18 just seems like a lot of money to go sit in a pool that didn’t cost the establishment anything to heat.
ANYWAYS, we did a reconnaissance mission around the area we had parked in, harassed the woman at the information center, and made a coffee/tea mixture by setting up the stove on the trunk of the car.  We had a late breakfast at a joint called “the Log Cabin”. It was Okay. The veggie burger I had was pretty much a mushroom omelet on a piece of bread with things that a Kiwi would normally put on a burger...pineapple and pickled beetroot, with lettuce, mayo and tomato sauce. After a bit more walking, we went to the library, and used the free internet for an hour to look up all the things we had been wondering about, and to let families know that yes, we are indeed still alive.
Back at the car, we organized some more things before setting out on an epic journey to summit Conical Hill. Before we got to the start of it, we wandered into a shop that a guy is running out of his house, selling pottery that he makes on site. It was pretty neat, and he let us take a bunch of apples from his tree too ...Thanks dude! The trail up Conical Hill is very nice. It is a wide path that switchbacks it’s way through a forest of Fir, Pine, Cedar, Alder, Beech, Eucalyptus, Maple, Spruce, Willow, Birch, Poplar, Tamarack and I’m sure other types of trees... At the top of the hill is a very nice lookout, complete with ample benches, a roof and directional indicators. We stopped here for a bit, I did a set of all my physio-recommended stretches and exercises plus a few more, while Drew did a bunch of squats, pushups and triceps dips.
Walking back, I took a couple of pictures for Mum of various pine cut-blocks. The trees here get much larger, much faster than in Alberta. I also took some pictures for Dad, of some fairy rings, so that if Mum decides to take her career to NZ, he can be assured of a project as well.
Back at a random park, we dried out the tent and all our gear while mixing up another delightful couscous concoction. Complete with mushrooms, garlic, red pepper, and some instant soup mix we got from Ashbel. Some little birds were quite pleased with the couscous and rice we left for them. We cleaned up our dishes and then headed out once more...the roads seem to lead to Parnassus from here, 75km south of Kaikoura. It will be interesting to swim in the Pacific Ocean, so soon after having gone for a dip in the Tasman Sea! This island is small!

P.S. there are lots of sheep in New Zealand. There are actually millions upon millions of sheep in New Zealand. I just thought you should know this, since I did not know that sheep are so plentiful in New Zealand.

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