Kaikoura Coast Track to Kaikoura

 The Kaikoura Coast Track is a privately owned trail started by two families on their farm. They only allow ten trampers per day, as hikers are called in New Zealand. They also own the cottage that we stayed in.

It rained all day!  Bummer!  I thoroughly enjoyed it anyway.  Dennis gave me such a nice gift.  He told me to walk at my own pace, and he would be fine.  I practically raced the roughly four miles up the mountain. It felt so good to burn off some energy after sitting for so many hours on the long flight from the U. S. and then the car trip yesterday.

The first part of the trail is through a beautiful forest.

We cross about five of these bridges.  Normally wood is slippery, but the clever farmers had covered them in something like chicken wire of a much nicer grade

The day was pretty well fogged in.  On the other side of that mountain is the Pacific Ocean.

I was starting to get slightly chilled by this time, so I stopped and put on my wool base layer.  It is a pain to take off a rain poncho because there was nowhere to put it while I dug through my backpack to find my shirt.  And, of course, it continued raining on top of me.  It wasn't too long before I got out my down jacket and gloves.  Once again, the same routine with the backpack and poncho. I got to the, top and my plan was to go into the hut and warm up and maybe eat something and then go back and find Dennis.  But as I got there, I kept worrying about Dennis.  This trail was quite steep and a bit slippery.  I knew he hadn't trained enough to hike this steep trail. So I turned around and went back.  Because I was perspiring going up, I was totally soaked under my parka.  Going down, I got colder and colder.  I wasn't really worried about hypothermia, but these were perfect conditions for it.  I found Dennis halfway to the hut, and I decided it would be better to go back to the start and call for a ride.  If we had gone all the way to the hut, we still had about a four-mile downhill.  Dennis was nervous about falling, so he was moving pretty slowly. He had a knee replacement a little over a year ago. 

                                        

He should have been nervous about falling because he slipped and slid down towards a cliff.  He managed to grab hold of the grass and stop himself, but then he had to climb back up.  I didn't see it happen, but I am glad he didn't go over the cliff. He had on my extra backpack!  Just kidding, Dennis.

We made it to the bottom, cold and tired.  Our host picked us up and took us to our car. We turned the heat on high!  All and all, it was still a pretty fun day.