Day 2: Schoolhouse bay to Camp Bay

24 kilometres down!

Waking up naturally to the sounds of the waves crashing on the rocks below my tent and the beautiful tunes of the tuis in the trees around, it was a sure sign today was to be a good day.

Wake up, pack up tent, cook breakfast, pack. That's my new morning routine and I love it.

I had the best nights sleep, I was warm enough, I love my little tent and the mattress didn't deflate.

We headed off for the first 7km of undulating hill climbs. About a half hour in it starts to rain but didn't really stop until lunch. It didn't matter, the misty cloud covered hills set behind the deep blue still water of the Sounds was stunning. The track hugged the coast line and every turn all I could think of was how beautiful this is and how lucky am I. No one's around. We have this pristine place to ourselves!

Stopped to have a little ride on a rusty old tractor we found.

Laura and I walked most of the day with Conny, an Austrian girl walking solo. We stopped for lunch on a jetty, (who knew a wrap with tinned chicken, pumpkin hummus and parmesan would be so tasty) then continued on another 10km until Camp Bay.

Arrived to a beautiful DOC campsite with toilets, right on the beach. We set up camp straight away and then the three of us and another TA walker Tim from Taranaki headed for a swim in the freezing cold water. When you don't have showers this is what you gotta do! It was cold but there were a heap of small little starfish in the water to distract myself from the cold.

We had quite a contingency of TA walkers at the campsite which was nice. There's something so special about a group of strangers from all over the world coming together and cooking a meal and all chatting about each ones days and enjoying the beautiful place we're in. It made for such a nice evening.

It's now 9pm and still light out so I'm sitting down by the water writing this amongst all the birds flying in the flax plants behind me.

Ren X