Four seasons in a day

Day 174 – Marahau, New Zealand

I’ve not exactly had the four seasons in a day promised by the locals as being the norm on the South Island, but I’ve had scorching, rain, wind and cold. 

Yesterday I took the ferry to Picton, crossing the strait between both islands. I spent the journey and the subsequent bus trip with the French woman I had seen again the day before -people ask me sometimes if I end up travelling with or meeting the same people along the way, and yes it happens! So that was a pleasant morning.

I met up in Nelson with a friend who hosted me for the night in Ruby Bay -it is a beautiful place. She kindly took me grocery shopping then dropped me off at my hostel in Marahau, at the entrance of the Abel Tasman National Park. (They have a tiny grocery shop there, it is hideously expensive. I can’t thank her enough for making me stock up before arriving.)

I’ve been busy this afternoon, planning the next days, so much so that I’ve planned my way up until December 1st (and I have a very good idea of what I’m going to do after that).

My hostel is a charming bungalow with two dorms and a double room; a German couple has the room, I occupy one dorm and a late-comer is occupying the other one. All neat and tidy.

I don’t have phone reception in the hostel, I have to walk a bit along the sea to get a signal, which is charming when the sea is blue and the sun is shining, less when it’s cold and raining. The Wi-Fi will load some pages but not others, I haven’t found the logic yet.

Today is also the release day of two books from authors I love and had been eagerly expecting. Well, the publishing houses are American, which means that I had to wait tonight to get them! Time zones can totally suck! At least in Paris I get the books for breakfast, not for post-diner tea-time!

(Their pages were the one not loading in the hostel, so picture me walking along the beach-which-is-really-a-mudflat my phone in hand, trying to get an update and a download in between a pier and a bunch of flax.)

I’m on the northwestern point of the South Island, and the waters I’m facing belong to the Tasman Sea.

Tomorrow I’ll be walking the first stretch of my planned tramp in the park!