Waking up to a wet morning in New Zealand should not really be a surprise, but we’ve managed to avoid pretty much any rain until this point. Worse thing is that we have to walk the 5 or so hours back to the vans. Wasting no time in getting going, and hoping that the new shoes really are waterproof, we start back up the track. Not really stopping at all, just plodding on we get to the saddle, by which point I’m in shorts and t-shirt, figuring that the waterproof jacket is not really going to stop all the rain, so I might as well get as few clothes wet as possible. At least my feet are still dry! All downhill from that point, but it was still a mighty trek, especially when you run out of brunch bars!
The viewpoints over the Marlborough Sounds, when not completely covered in cloud show thin whisps of rain cloud floating over – even when the heavens open, this country still has a charm to it!
Campsite for the night was Smiths Farm, a favourite from the last time we were in Picton, even though they still gave us the fresh banana muffins. With the rain not showing any sign of stopping we got the log fire going and planted ourselves in front of that for the night. At least we’ve got our tramping done!