Punakaiki Beach

I have had a lovely day today.

A slow morning with Tarn and Al at The Pines Tavern. Then a trip into Westport to try getting some plumbing parts - neither Mitre 10 nor the local plumbers could help - but they were all fascinated by the part I need! Anyway I've created a temporary fix that'll see me through until I'm in Nelson on Wednesday.

When I left Westport I was headed out to Carters Beach for a cup of tea in the van (my first now that the gas is sorted) but I couldn't bring myself to stop that soon so I kept on to Tauranga Bay and had a cuppa there with an early lunch and a read of my book. Wonderful sitting on my couch, back doors open, watching the rain and the sea and communing with the wekas and bellbirds.

I like this life.

When I could finally make myself move on I heaed south, not really sure where I was going to stop. I had lots of wee halts to admire views, take photos, listen to the bird life and just generally enjoy everything. It waas close to 3 by the time I made it into Punakaiki so this seemed like a sensible place to stop.

I'm the only soul in the entire motor camp. Bliss. I took a walk down the track right beside my site and took this photo, then wandered back to the van and had a wee sleep. On waking I thought I'd best bring myself down to the tavern on the corner to blip - no internet access at the camp.

Now that I've got the van I'm going to have to do some learning about taking decent landscape shots.