Farewell Spit

March 3rd, 2003 at 12:00am

Finally I am on my retreat from tramping. I escaped the world of ascents, descents, rain, and tourists, and am at a place called the World’s End all the way on the northwest point of the South Island of New Zealand. I WAS going to go to Nelson Lakes today, but after the CRAZY storm that came through last night, I knew I needed a break. All was fine in the campground in Marahau until about 2am when it started to rain very, very, very hard. Torrential west-coast style storm. I recently re-sealed the inside seam of my tent, and I was very happy with the results – as hard as it was raining there was no water coming in. It was raining SO hard though that I couldn’t sleep. 3 hours later and it was STILL POURING. Then, all of a sudden, the ground just couldn’t take any more water and the campground turned into an absolute river in minutes. I went to turn over in my tent and it felt like I was on a water bed!

I opened the door of the tent and saw there was over 4 inches of water on the ground outside! I was IN the river. I knew I had to get out or I was going to sink! So I quickly got my things together and RAN across the lawn/river to the porch of the backpacker’s. I went back to rescue my backpack which was ENTIRELY under water. I HATE this NZ weather!!! I was soaked just from running back and forth. Another guy tenting also abandoned his tent and the 2 of us slept on the porch from about 5am on, but I had trouble getting back to sleep after all the drama and worrying about all my stuff. My trekking poles nearly floated away! What a night.

Luckily though the rain stopped and the sun came out this morning and I was able to do a 3-hour drying out session. Finally by noon I was feeling somewhat human, although still tired from lack of sleep, and I left Marahau for Motueka to resupply my food.

As I said I was planning to do more tramping in Nelson Lakes, but when I got to Motueka I saw the weather called for rain for the next 3 days and I said NO WAY. So I decided to escape from everything and take the one-way road to the end of the world, literally.

It’s amazing that I got one ride from Motuela to here, a distance of over 100 km, with a German guy who went 50 km out of his way to take me right to the door! It started to rain really hard on the way here and I was even more lucky because it would have been impossible to get another ride in that weather.

There are only 10 people in this backpacker’s, but 8 of them are German-speaking, and no one has been really friendly to me so it’s a bit of a bummer. 6 of the 8 are leaving tomorrow and I’ll be happier when they’re gone. It’s a nice place though, in a beautiful setting, with beach and hills just minutes away, and I know I will enjoy a few days of rest here.

Walking around Cape Farewell

Just me and the beach and the sunset

Sunset in the sand

Entry Filed under: Hiking/Trekking,Nelson Lakes,New Zealand