Sometimes you should have a break and deal with less tiring things than hiking.
In fact, I was expecting a fairly boring day. Lara was meant to leave Wanaka today and I wanted to plunge through the pictures that I have taken throughout the last couple of days.
Oh and later on I should get some stuff for my hike into young valley.
So I started the day with sleeping in and slowing getting up and running with editing some pictures, while hanging out at the hostel.
Btw, I was staying at “Holly’s backpackers” in Wanaka. A small and very relaxed hostel with a really nice living room and nice bedrooms. With 26 NZD/Night also quite affordable in case you own a BBH card.
Because the afternoon provided some great weather I decided, to leave the hostel continuing my work at a random café and browse the Internet a little bit. It was good to catch a little bit of that traveling and backpacking feeling that comes with living in hostels.
I realized how much i missed being out there in the wild. The only purpose of working in Auckland is to get up and running again. To be able to travel again. I am sure this will be the right thing to do.
Later on I started to get prepared for young valley. Reading charts and a book about the trails in that area to help me getting around, was one thing. But I was still missing one crucial piece of gear to go out there on a multi day hike: A tent, or at least something similar to that.
For a couple of months I got more and more fascinated by the idea of light weight tramping, carrying as less as possible, so it was just a logical conclusion to me to play that field a little bit to get some experience around it.
So I decided to head into a local outdoor store to get a bivouac bag, instead of a tent, an option that has some special attraction, as it is sleeping at its lowest level. Besides, it is much cheaper than a tent and incredibly light.
I opted for a Salewa PTX Bivi Bag that only weighs around 500g.
Oh yeah, I am all excited to get out there and check out who that thing is working for me.
While messing around at the outdoor store, I was staring out of the window for a little moment. And lo and behold, who crossed my path again? Lara! Why the hell is she still in Wanaka?
So I waved and knocked against the window to get her attention. Wanaka is simply too small to get around unnoticed.
I can’t completely recall why she was still around, but I think it had something to do with catching a certain bus, that she didn’t manage to do. So she’ll try again tomorrow.
Since we couldn’t hit a pub yesterday, we went for that option today.
Later on went to my hostel to have dinner where we met Maria from Regensburg. We had a nice chat and fortunately she was heading up to Haast Pass tomorrow, which means she has to go through Makarora, that is where my journey into Young Valley will begin. Awesome, all the necessary planning for my hike is done. I’ve got something to sleep, enough to eat for 4 days and a ride to Makarora.
So, it was time to finally waive good bye to Lara and hit the sack. Tomorrow I have to rise early and get prepared for my final hike.
