Pakawau energy

Precisely 12.5 kms as the crow flies (or gannet in this part of the world) due south from yesterday's blip, on the 'inner' shores of Golden Bay rather than the 'outer' West Coast shores of yesterday. Such huge contrasts. Yesterdays wave - thunderous. Today's wave - a tickle.

I have more to write about my experiences this past 24 hours but for now, I need to go to bed.

Until tomorrow.....



OK - so it's 2 days later. Longer than I expected.
My Golden Bay time is always gorgeous time and my van time has always felt like 'release' time for me. Unfortunatley, I experienced an incident which left me feeling a bit shaken.

At about 10.30, whilst getting ready for bed, there was a knock on my van door. That shook me to begin with but I was almost instantly reassured to hear a young female voice outside. The reassurance didn't last long. I threw some clothes back on then checked through the window before opening the door. I was greeted by 2 young German girls who, they told me, were from the van that had parked alongside me. Whilst they were in their van something had made them look outside and that's when they'd seen a man trying to peer through my van curtains. My van has curtains all around it but they don't fit brilliantly and there are usually some gaps. I've never worried too much about it figuring that anyone passing would never be able to see in. But someone snooping around and craning to look in......that scared me. I grabbed a torch and together we scanned the other dozen or more vehicles that were parked around the area. People were still up and about but without much clue about who the person might have been, we opted each to go back to our own vans, secure the doors, windows and curtains and to respond quickly with loud screams if anyone heard anything else.

Back in my van I secured the curtains tightly then hopped into bed. I was surprised to fall asleep quickly but woke again around 2.30. I didn't sleep too much after that, despite hearing nothing but birds and water. My sense of freedom has been shaken but I'm determined that the experience will not scare me away from enjoying my time-away-in-my-van trips.